Sunset Picture Book
by A Heart For My Nobody
Summary: Roxas, the mortal enemy of many previous schools, is sentenced to dorm at the toughest place around: Sunset Hill Boarding School. It quickly becomes clear that this is no ordinary school. --Pairings: Axel/Roxas, Riku/Sora and maybe more -- AU --
1. A New Fate Locked Up Nice And Tight

**Chapter One: A New Fate - Locked Up Nice And Tight**

Life – A novel concept – He often wondered what it would be like to have one.

August 13th 1993 – An unfortunate date – The birth of the infinite burden that nobody wanted to deal with.

August 1st 1998 – Judgement – The death of those who brought this burden into the world.

August 2nd 1998 through near-present day – Admittance into an orphanage – Admittance into school – Grades plunging – First foster family – Failing classes and fights in school – Attempted escape from foster home – Expulsion – Rejection of foster family – Fights in orphanage – Admittance into second orphanage – Second foster family – Admittance into second school – Zero attendance – Fights ending in rejection of second foster family – Expulsion – Successful escape from orphanage – Fights and stealing in public places – Admittance in third orphanage – and so on…

Roxas was lifeless it seemed. Lifeless, soulless, careless, and with such a busy schedule. On weekdays he spent his time hating his foster family or his orphanage, hating school, skipping classes, making escape attempts, and fighting those who just made it worse. During weekends, he spent his time hating his family or foster home, escaping, stealing, fighting, hating the silence, and in his free time, hating himself.

Roxas' parents were killed while he was young, and since then he's spent his days running. He ran from orphanages, he ran from home, he ran from authority figures, and he even ran from those who offered him friendship. It's not that he was scared, he wasn't, but he hated the world for taking his parents away, and he hated his parents for letting it. Roxas hadn't truly felt fear or anger in years, despite his fights, and he most definitely didn't feel happiness… at least not that he could remember. He always felt empty, like a shell except with the nagging existence of mixed feelings that he felt he shouldn't have. He couldn't tell what these feeling were, but he knew that they weren't happy. It was almost as though he had a heart, but it was incomplete or distant. He never really knew if he kept running in order to find the rest of it, or to escape those mixed feelings that haunted him. He didn't know why he ran, but he did. He had no reason not to; No one would miss him. After a run-in with juvie, however, the 'powers that be' decided that things had to change.

January 1st 2008 – Roxas is being transported to a high security prison by means of a long yellow patty wagon. The four-wheeled monster that he has become oh so accustomed to has an empty stomach today. The seats of the other prisoners who would normally be riding this creature, spewing rumors about this one and that one, throwing food, punches, and paper airplanes, or being very rudely hit sharp in the forehead with any of these things, remain very bare. Roxas can see very well that there is no one returning to this prison, because there was no one who came out. This prison is no tolerance, no mercy, and no escape.

As Roxas' bus slows down to enter the tall, black, steel gates of his new prison, he catches the name out of the corner of his eye: Sunset Hill Boarding School, and in un-printed letters on an un-existent sign below, he reads to himself: 'The end of your life'. Before he has enough time to process it, Roxas is standing on his legs and they are going numb as the chilling creak of the gate closing behind him follows the sound of the bus' departure. He has always hated buses and the thought of having to ride one every morning and afternoon, but he now finds himself willing it's quick return along with a happy second chance in a world that doesn't really want him but might, just might, attempt to put up with him and save him from this cruel fate. As the gate closes, Roxas can swear that he hears millions of tiny little locks clicking, sealing his fate more and more by the second.

Already he feels pain. Already, someone has pushed forcefully passed him, knocking his books, pens and pencils, with which he knew he would be writing many wishes of death, swiftly to the floor. Roxas is stunned. For a moment he twitches and then finds the spot on his shoulder that is probably going to bruise. For some reason his eyes can not find the one responsible. He sees people, probably a lot of people, but he can't focus. He hears the sound of one of his pencils snapping under the unforgiving boot of passer-by. Still he sees no faces. He feels his senses leaving him, as he blindly fumbles for his belongings. He feels as though he can't see, or can't smell. Pencils, books, cement, and grass seem to all feel the same. He can no longer even focus enough to hear the footsteps around him, only the echo of the creaking gate and the millions of tiny locks.

As sight, feeling, smells, and sound begin to mix in Roxas' brain, he can feel all his muscles tensing, and all he wants to do is to scream out and make it all stop. Suddenly, he sees it. Not a face, but a hand reaching to the ground and gripping one of his books, gently lifting it into the air. In what seems like an instant and a slow motion blink of the eye both at the same time, the hand manages to find every one of Roxas' belongings that he had, at this point, declared lost forever in his own mind. His eyes follow the long skinny arm that is now outstretched towards him, both loosely and protectively grasping his book bag. His gaze moves up the black, smooth fabric of the sleeve, passed what looks like the side of a chain necklace sticking out of the deep hood draped over the mans' back. Finally, Roxas sees a face, and a whole head at that. The man has brilliant green eyes, accented by black eyeliner and two tattoos, one under each eye, acting as mirror images of what looks like dark blue teardrops. Even stranger is the mans' hair, as it is a bright red color spiked back into many points behind the mans head. From the front Roxas thinks that it looks like a fiery lions mane. The man wears an expression that seems impossible to read, but definitely bears a somber, cool and collected demeanor. He stares at Roxas for a moment, and than his eyebrows rise ever so slightly as he begins to speak.

"You dropped this…" He says simply. He seems to move his mouth a bit too much for what he is saying, and jostles the bag in his hand as if to indicate that he is referring to it, as obvious as it is. "…didn't you?"

After a moment, Roxas blinks his world back into perspective. He can now see people around him. He sees nobody he knows, but he DOES see them, which, by his figuring, is a great improvement. He still finds his eyes trying to lock on the red haired man standing before him. He begins to realize that he was just talked to. Was it a question? He thinks he heard 'didn't you?' He doesn't, however, know what he did or didn't do that is now in question. Feeling uncharacteristically agreeable, Roxas answers, "Yes… I did." With just a flick of his wrist, the man tosses Roxas' bag to him and turns heal. The impact of the bag nearly knocks Roxas over, but only because of his slow reaction time, which he would very much like to blame on his disorientation. "Uh," is all Roxas can get out of his mouth before he realizes that he's standing alone again. That's fine though, he thinks. He doesn't really know what he would have said anyway. He may be feeling strange and insignificant, but a 'thank you' is still beneath him. There had been times that he would've thrown a punch at such a person for messing with his stuff, or perhaps the thought would just cross his head and exhale as a sort of gritty scoff. Even still, he's at a new school and he can't let his first impression be that of a softy.

"Hey, New kid!" An older teen calls out, approaching with a definite tough-guy attitude. He is a blond kid, obviously in a higher grade, and both his posture and his expression scream 'I'm superior'. By his sides are two other kids that are about the same age. "What is discipline?" He continues.

"Uh…" Roxas starts and is quickly cut off.

"No," The kid interrupts with a rude finger pointed at Roxas' face. "You don't know yet, 'cause you just got here. And I'M going to take on the great task of instructing you." He pounds a hand on his chest with a grin that is either self-impressed or very sadistic before continuing, "Here at Sunset Hill, the rules are the words of God, and we," He gestures to himself and his company, "are the hands of God, enforcing his every will." Roxas pauses in confusion. What is he hearing from this guy? He wants to move on and just ignore it, but what with the three-on-one odds and his recent disorientation, he figures it's best to stay and listen. "Now," The older kid continues once more, "the first rule of action in this school is to pay your respects to the headmaster, and I don't think you've done that yet." He pauses, "Every second that you spend looking stupid in that spot gives me more reason to take a rougher approach to your 'lessons'. Do I make myself clear?"

"We ain't kiddin', y'know?" The darker, muscle man to his left chimes in.

"Five seconds." The gray-haired girl to his right ads.

Quickly forgetting his tough guy mindset, Roxas steps past the older kids and starts towards the main building of the school. He has never had a pleasant experience meeting the principal of the school, and now it's law that he goes and talks to one right away.

Roxas' first impression of the school as he walks inside is that it has very reflective floors. He doesn't really look at much else. As he walks his eyes meet that of his reflection, looking equally as displeased and than surprised as Roxas somehow finds the headmasters office without ever looking up. He has always had a sort of luck with finding things, but he also always seems to leave his luck at the door when he goes into places like this.

After but a moment, Roxas is standing in a well-adorned room, dressed with many bookshelves, maps, tapestries, and paintings. Directly across from Roxas is an older man in a red robe. He has blond hair that has now formed itself into a well-cut beard under his jaw. The man's face appears surprisingly gentle for a principal and, glancing up at Roxas from something he's writing with a quill pen, he gives a smile that reveals the aged marks beside his eyes that indicate smiling over many years. This face, Roxas thinks, is exactly the same face as the one he's wearing in the massive painting of himself that hangs about seven feet above his desk. Strangely, this painting is the only one out of five in the room that isn't a picture of a mouse.

"Ah, and you must be Roxas." The man speaks in a stern, low-pitched voice. Roxas says nothing despite the evident expectation directed at him, "As you may very well have guessed, I am Ansem, lead teacher and headmaster of Sunset Hill. Some here refer to me as Ansem the wise." He takes an unnecessarily long moment to laugh at this statement while Roxas tries to figure out where the humor is hiding.

"Uh…" Roxas begins.

"Do not 'uhhhh' my boy. 'Uhhhh'ing is not one of the signature traits of a Sunset Hill academe." He shakes his finger, "You must speak loudly, charismatic and decisive."

"I'M SORRY, SIR. THE KIDS OUTSIDE SENT ME, SIR." Roxas practically yells in a mockingly sarcastic interpretation of charisma.

"Hmmm… better, but you still need work." Ansem sighs as he leans back in his chair, he then pushes himself to his feet and begins to walk around his desk towards the new student, "Ah yes… the Prefects. You will learn to appreciate their authority here, my boy. After all," He pats Roxas on the back and turns him toward the door, "They're the ones who keep the peace here at Sunset Hill. Just keep out of trouble and you should have no quarrel with them. Now, why don't you go drop that bag of yours off at the dorms? The rest of your belongings have already been moved there." With a nudge, the smiling principal sends Roxas out of his office, "Oh, and Roxas?" he calls from behind, "I here that you are quite the roamer… for now, let's relegate that roaming to in campus, shall we?"

As Roxas leaves the main building to find his dorm, he is met with the sadistic, grinning glances of the same kids who sent him inside in the first place. For now, they're leaving him alone. _At least there's that_, Roxas thinks. When he finds the boys' dorm, he walks in to find a group of three kids huddling around some sort of card game, and a fourth one off to the side sitting in what looks to be Roxas' checkered bean bag chair.

"Get the hell off my chair!" are Roxas' first words. The boy, dressed in baggy green carpenter pants and a black, skull print shirt, hops to his feet. His blonde hair and brown eyes make Roxas think of a banana.

"Oh! So this is your chair, huh? Comfy." The boy grins and walks towards Roxas, "Name's Hayner, and you're officially on my turf." An outstretched hand is only met with Roxas' glare.

_It's a new school_, Roxas thinks to himself, _Don't punch, Don't Punch… he didn't know it was your seat. Don't bruise the banana._

"And… you are?" Hayner cocks his head.

"Roxas." He starts, "And this is the boys' dorm… not your 'turf'."

"Oh hoh!" Hayner laughs, "I didn't know that! The new kid is teaching me stuff already!" His sarcastic tone only makes it harder for Roxas to hold himself back. "Yes, okay, smarty. It's the boys' dorm. It's also _my_ turf, and if I like you, it can be your turf too." He starts to pace back and forth in front of Roxas, "As of now, you are on test drive mode, and I am your test friend, here to show you the ropes and make sure you get by."

"You?" Roxas scoffs, "My friend?"

"Trust me, bud," Hayner leans on Roxas's shoulder and is brushed off by Roxas' hand, "Here, you're gonna need some friends." He starts towards the door, "Come on. It's Sunday so we don't have any classes. It's the best time to give you the grand tour."

Hayner walks ahead of Roxas who grudgingly decides to follow him. The brown-eyed boy points straight ahead to begin the tour.

"As you probably already know, that's the school's main building. Most of the classes take place in there. The caf's in there too, and the principal's office. On the other side of that building is the girls' dorm. It's like a promised land that's just out of reach." He sighs to himself as they approach the school, then stops and points to his right, "Over there is the 'impassible' gate to the school."

"Why'd you sound so insincere there?" Roxas asks, actually interested.

"I'll show you later." He points to his left, "Back there you got some basketball courts, tennis fields, a few resting places with benches and a gazebo, the library, the gym, the football field, expensive housing and… uh…oh! And the shops for mechanics. The bookstore is over there too. I'm sure you'll make your way over there some time, but for now I'm too lazy."

"I thought this was supposed to be a tour?" Roxas crosses his arms.

"Quit complaining and keep up." Hayner walks inside the school, through a couple of hallways, and into a large open area with many seats.

Around the edges of the room are an assortment of lines prepared for the distribution of various school foods. "This is the cafeteria! We haven't had any deaths around the school that we can link directly to the food, so I think you should be safe."

"Greaaaaat…" Roxas rolls his eyes.

"Emergency regurgitation stations are located nearby just in case." Hayner points to the restrooms and then continues into the cafeteria, "Now, it's already mess time so I should be able to point some of the groups out to you." His eyes scour the room and then he points, "The Goths and Emos hang out together. You can generally tell them apart by the 'Halloween every day' appearance and the stormy rain clouds above their heads. I think Maleficent has been elected to be their 'Queen'. Zexion over there is the Librarian's Assistant, and about the only one who wouldn't be ashamed to have that title. You'll hate him if you ever have to deal with books." He moves his finger to a different table, "The Preps are pretty easy to understand. What you see is what you get. Usually from big money, they're all about appearances. Cute girls, snobby guys… what more to say? I think that Setzer is their model representative."

Hayner looks around the room and points yet again, "The Greasers are the kings of the road. They're a little behind the times, keeping up those auto shop hobbies, but they're good at what they do, and you don't want to mess with them. Cloud's their top man, but they usually call him by his last name: Strife." He stops to think, and Roxas attempts to take in all the information, "The Jocks are the heads of the school. They're big, they're tough… you don't mess with them. Other than that, most of 'em aren't too pretty, and could lose a battle of smarts to a rock. I guess that doesn't hold true for their leader, Xemnas, though." Hayner grabs Roxas' arm, moves out of the cafeteria and starts walking, "Most people fall under at least one of the many Sunset Hill stereotypes, and we've even got names for the people who don't." He looks proud as they walk out of the building, "The strong people of this variety generally end up being Bullies, whereas the weak ones end up falling into the category of Unfortunates, meaning they can't fit in anywhere, and they also can't hold their own." He moves his hands as he gets into what he's talking about, "Then there are the rare exceptions to all these rules: the Nobodies. Nobodies don't fit into any category, but they are kinda overlooked or avoided, unlike Bullies or Unfortunates. Take Namine for example. She's kinda weird, always drawing, and sits by herself all the time. You'd think that that would make her prime bullying material, but the head Jock, Xemnas has a thing for her, so everyone leaves her alone. That's one way it happens."

They open the doors to the boys' dorm and walk back inside.

"Last but not least, are the Nerds!" he gestures around the room. The two boys playing the card game look up, and the girl that was watching stands to greet him.

"I'm Olette." The tomboyish girl smiles with an outstretched hand very similar to Hayner's. She has short brown hair and green eyes. Roxas instinctively ignores the handshake, but Hayner moves his hand for him. The larger boy stands up from his game, followed quickly by his scrawny friend.

"I'm Pence," The boy says, nodding. He's wearing a large baggy shirt, and equally baggy pants. On his head, he's wearing a cloth headband with a mop of messy hair sticking out from above it. It is difficult to tell whether his hair is messier than that of the boy next to him, but it is obviously less intentional. The scrawny kid standing next to him has his two arms slung behind his messy spiked hair and is rocking back and forth. His cloths seem to be a contradiction as they are adorned with chains but are colored a bright red, blue, and white. He is wearing a necklace with a crown pendant on his neck and a goofy grin on his face.

"This is Sora." Hayner introduces him, "He's one of the Unfortunates. My devious plan making skills were enough to qualify me to be at least a Nerd, and both Olette and Pence excel in their classes, but Sora is too ditzy to be a Nerd, too anti fashion to be a Prep, too happy to be a Goth or an Emo, too klutzy to be a Jock, and I'd hate to see what would happen if he tried to work in the auto shop." He shakes his head, "So we adopted him into our little group to keep him safe from the outside world."

"Nice to meet you!" Sora says, still grinning.

"Hey." Roxas answers plainly.

Roxas's gaze turns to follow the red haired man from earlier. He had entered the dorm at one point, and is now walking up the stairs to the second level.

"Who's that?" he asks inquisitively.

"That?" Hayner looks over as the red haired man walks out of sight, "That's Axel…" he frowns at Roxas's interest, "He's the pyromaniac psycho of the school. Axel's a Nobody, but for different reasons than Namine."

"Different reasons?" Roxas asks, and Hayner nods.

"Yeah. A few years back, some kid made a crack at Axel thinking he was better than everyone else. A couple nights later, there was a fire in the boys' dorm near that kids room." He shakes his head with a sigh, "Luckily nobody got hurt, but the kid dropped out of school and we never heard from him again."

"I think he left the state." Pence chimes in with a raised finger.

"Anyway," Hayner continues, "Nobody could link the fire to Axel, but the students all know it was him. Since then, no one's dared to bother him. Heck, people avoid him purposefully."

"After his last roommate, Demyx, had his fourth nightmare about being burned alive, they moved him out." Pence starts, "Now Axel is the only one in these dorms who gets the entire room to himself!"

"Anyway," Hayner begins again, "I'd stay away from him if I were you, especially given your behavior."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Roxas tenses, "Besides, he picked up my bag when someone knocked into me earlier. He seemed nice enough."

"Picked up your bag?" Hayner laughs, "That's a shame. Every new kid gets one nice deed out of Axel and that's about it. Sounds like yours was a lamer." He shakes his head, "Well… I'm gonna go grab us some grub. Why don't you unpack your stuff in your room? It won't last too long out here."

"Grab me a soda, would ya?" Pence raises his arm.

"Sure." He looks back at Roxas, "I'll teach you some more when I get back." Roxas looks at Hayner and gives a quick, uninterested nod. He then turns his focus back to the staircase where the red haired man had been.

_Axel, huh?_


	2. Unwritten Rainbows And Pizza

**Chapter Two: Unwritten Rainbows and Pizza**

Shortly after Hayner leaves the boys' dorm, Sora shows Roxas to his room. Roxas gasps in horror as they step in. The walls are covered in rainbows, childish fantasy posters of knights, princesses and dragons, comic strips and random doodles. A heart shaped clock accompanied by a tissue box and a lava lamp are the only things that adorn the table. Everything else seems to be on the floor. Roxas would have thought that they had somehow taken a detour into the girls' dorm if it hadn't been for the array of boys clothing thrown into the mix on the floor.

"What the hell _is_ this?" Roxas steps back, shielding his eyes as though the colors burn.

"This is our room!" Sora grins with his eyes shut tight.

"Our?" Roxas turns pale, "Wait… you're my roommate?"

"Yup!" Sora scratches the back of his head, "My last one graduated, so I was alone for a little bit. It's pretty cool that I have a new one!" he flips himself onto the bottom mattress of the bunk bead.

"We have a bunk, huh?" Roxas frowns as he considers whether or not it's safe to step into the room.

"Yesss," Sora says with an even larger grin, "My mom requested it for me when I came here. So I'm one of the few special people who gets one. You get to be top though, cuz I'm always hitting my head."

"Great." Roxas steps into the room and looks around, "Well… where can I put my stuff?" Sora points to a small closet and Roxas makes his way over to it, attempting to not trip over anything. Upon opening it, Roxas sees that Sora has made no attempt to use the closet, as every single shelf and cloths hangar remains bare. In fact, nothing is in the closet anywhere other than a stray card off in the corner. He picks up the card and examines the edges around the top. They bear a strong resemblance to the crown pendant Sora has on, "Pumpkin head?" he reads off the card.

"An attack card?" Sora sits up on the bed, "Is it an eight!?"

"Uh…" Roxas frowns, searching the card. Sora jumps up and snatches it from Roxas' hand.

"Oh, it is!" he gasps and cups his mouth with his free hand, "I lost this and I've been looking for it for soooooo long! It's weird too, cuz I'm usually pretty organized." Roxas simply stares at Sora, trying to understand the boy at least a little. Suddenly, Sora leaps forward and wraps his arms around his startled new roommate. Somehow Roxas manages to avoid the instinct of throwing him across the room.

"What are you doing?" he twitches, pushing Sora away from him.

"I like you already, Roxas!" he smiles. Roxas feels as if he's talking to a little kid. He jumps a little as he notices Hayner standing in the doorway with a stupid looking grin spread over his face.

"Why don't you drop your bag off in the closet and put this 'male bonding' on hold," he chuckles, "I've got a few more things I need to teach you before the day's done."

The two boys walk out of the dorm and down the cement path towards the school.

"Alright," Hayner speaks as though he's about to debrief Roxas on some top secret mission, "Now it's time that you learned the more important things about Sunset Hill, or S.H." Roxas doesn't understand why he is listening to this kid. Hayner can't be even a year older than him, yet he's letting the banana lead him all over school.

_I guess I have nothing better to do_, he thinks.

"I'm sure you've already been made aware of the prefects," Hayner points around to a few of the older kids surveying the area, "They generally make sure that the new kids know they're around." He points to the blonde kid and the two others who approached Roxas earlier. They appear to be scolding a young boy for spilling his milk, "That's Seifer," he begins, "he's one of the worst prefects here. His two goons are Raijin," he points to the tan skinned man, "and Fuijin." He points to the girl, "They're not actually prefects, but Seifer has adopted them into his 'Disciplinary Committee'. It kinda ticks me off. They're all stupid though, so they're kinda fun to mess with if you don't get caught. Same with the rest of the prefects."

"How is this important?" Roxas crosses his arms impatiently.

"I'm getting there." Hayner waves his hand in dismissal, "The important things are the rules…"

"What are you now? A prefect?"

"Not exactly…" he shakes his head, "The Headmaster's got a bias towards blondes with blue eyes. I got the hair, but not the eyes."

"Ah…" Roxas responds uninterestedly.

"Besides, this school has several sets of rules; the written rules that the staff and prefects deem important, and the unwritten rules to live by. It's the unwritten ones that are important."

"Uh huh…"

"Allow me to explain," he continues with a grin, "It's one of the first written rules of the school to never ever bring a weapon onto campus. It's _the_ first unwritten rule to always carry a weapon or face the consequences. The second rule is to never get caught with one."

"Carry a weapon?" Roxas' interest is peaked, but he's also a little worried.

"That's right," Hayner crosses his arms, "Mine's just a slingshot, but sometimes I barely get by with that. Sunset Hill isn't all smiles and hugs… although Sora would like to think so." Roxas pauses to think about this idea, and then quickly moves to catch up to Hayner who has walked ahead, "Another written rule," the talkative boy continues, "'Always respect the school's hierarchy'. The rule to live by: Never respect it. The higher up in the hierarchy, the lower the form of life. That makes the prefects dirt and the staff worse. Startin' to get it?" Roxas frowns at Hayner's tone.

"Yeah, I got it." he thinks that's generally how he treats them anyway._ Sunset Hill_… Roxas is stuck on the name. Every time he hears someone say it, it reminds him of something… like he's heard about it in the past… but where?

"I take it you don't have a weapon." Hayner judges and Roxas shakes his head.

"I don't need a weapon." He shrugs, "My fists have always worked fine for me."

"Fists?" Hayner laughs out loud for a long moment, "I'm sorry, buddy, but I know at least two, no… THREE girls who could beat you at fisticuffs."

"I don't plan on fighting girls…" Roxas tries to avoid the urge to prove him wrong.

"Hey, if you knew the girls, you wouldn't feel quite so bad," Hayner reassures him, "A lot of the girls are more dangerous than the guys here. My point is, we need to hook you up with a weapon, and fast." Roxas decides not to argue and follows Hayner back to the boys' dorm.

When the two boys walk back in, Sora and Pence have commenced another round of their card game and Olette has taken the watchers seat.

"Eight, Pumpkin head!" Sora says with a grin.

"I break your attack with a zero Oathkeeper," Pence says coolly, placing down a card, "And I'm set for a three hit combo with a six and a four… do you have any quick-plays?"

"I used them all last turn…" Sora despairs.

"Alright… that's eight plus five and five, for eighteen health points." Pence calculates. Sora lets out an over dramatic moan as Roxas and Hayner take seats in two chairs near the table. Looking up from the game, Pence offers Roxas a slice from a half-eaten pizza, and he turns it down with a shake of his head. Pence shrugs and takes a sip of his soda.

"Come on." Hayner crosses his arms, staring at Roxas, "You gotta eat something. You've just been thrown into the toughest school around and you've got classes first thing tomorrow."

"Don't bother worrying about me." Roxas says with a scowl, "I've been taking care of myself for years."

"Right." The brown eyed boy laughs, "I forgot. You're _hardcore_." He stands up and brushes himself off, "Well… I'm going to bed."

"I guess it is getting late…" Olette agrees.

"I hate it when the weekends are over." Pence says, beating Sora in the game. Or at least that's what it looked like from Sora's pained expression. Hayner strolls off to his room. Shortly afterward, once the two boys have picked up and safely stored their game away, Pence and Sora say goodnight and shuffle off in their separate directions. Partly in defiance, and partly because he feels like he can't sleep, Roxas stays up for a while watching TV, and much to his surprise, Olette sticks around to watch too. After a long while of staring at the TV with no conversation, Olette finally turns to look at Roxas.

"Well I have to get back to my dorm now." She smiles, "I'm already a ways past curfew." It is just now that it actually occurs to Roxas that it's odd that she's even here in the first place.

"Wait…" Roxas frowns and Olette stares at him, "Why are you in the boys' dorm?" Olette laughs and he knows that if he had asked anyone else the same question, they would have made some crack at him being slow and gotten punched in the face for it.

"I'm not supposed to be," She smiles, "but I sneak in here because most of my friends are guys. I have to sneak back without getting caught too, but it's worth it."

"Oh." Roxas says boringly, he's never been good at conversation.

"Anyway, I have to get back now." She waves, "Goodnight."

"Bye." Roxas waves his hand once.

Once Olette is gone, Roxas gives himself a moment to figure out exactly how tired he is, and then switches the TV off. He stands, stretches and makes his way to his room. Expecting Sora to be long asleep by now, Roxas quietly pushes the door open to see the boy sitting up on his bead reading some comic about a mouse, a dog and a duck.

"Hiya!" Sora waves, decked in a hideous red and green pajama set that is quite obviously an old Christmas gift gone wrong. Without responding, Roxas walks into the room, his feet searching for the spaces on the floor between Sora's things. He climbs the ladder of the bunk bed and slumps down on top of the covers. _Why is the room so bright?_ He thinks. It had bothered him earlier, but now that he is tired, it gives him the same feeling as being rudely awoken way too early in the morning, having gotten very little sleep.

"So you said you were knocked down?" Sora inquires from below.

"Huh?" Roxas turns his head in his bed to listen.

"You were knocked down." Sora repeats, "And Axel picked up your stuff?"

"Yeah…" The blonde frowns and lays back.

"That's nice. The same thing happened to me when I was new."

"Really…" Roxas says uninterested.

"Yeah, but nobody picked them up. I think Axel's favor to me was not stepping on one of my pencils." He says, "But some jerk had already stepped on my favorite pen and broke it." Roxas just stares at the ceiling and a moment later Sora continues, "So what do you think?"

"What?" Roxas sighs, "About what?"

"About the school!" Sora says as though it were obvious.

"It's just a school." Roxas shrugs, "I've never liked schools."

"But it's kinda different." Sora goes on, "Maybe since you don't like the other ones, you'll like this one."

"I doubt it…"

"Well…" Sora thinks, "You gotta give it a chance. You can't hate something before you know about it." There is a long silence as Roxas recalls memories about previous schools that he'd rather forget. The entire conversation is beginning to get to him, and right now he's just too tired of dealing with words and these colorful walls.

"Can we just go to bed?" Roxas turns his head to look off the side and squints at the light next to Sora's bed.

"Sure." Sora nods, "I'll get the light! Nighty night, Roxas!" Roxas lies straight down on the bed without a word, staring at the ceiling. When the light clicks off, Roxas is met with the illumination of dozens of glow in the dark stars, pasted above him.

"Ughhhh…" he complains, pushing a pillow into his face. Shortly afterward he's met with Sora's snoring.

The next morning, a loud ringing noise blares from the heart-shaped clock on Sora's table. Startled out of sleep, Roxas sits straight up on his bed, slamming his head into the ceiling.

"Fuck!" He exclaims, holding his head and biting his lip with one eye still shut.

"Oh… Sorry." Sora yawns from underneath, shutting the alarm off, "I have to have that go off every day or else I'll sleep and miss class." Sora hops out of bed and Roxas slumps back with a groan. "Aren't you gonna get dressed?" Sora says, shedding his PJs and salvaging yesterday's outfit from the floor.

"…I'm already dressed." Roxas says after a moment, climbing out of bed fully clothed.

"You slept in that?" Sora asks with a smile, "You're silly. Those chains can't be too comfortable." Roxas looks down at the single chain hanging from his pants and compares it to the one Sora has on his. The difference isn't extreme, and he wonders if the boy has forgotten that he has one too.

"When do classes start?" Roxas asks, wading through the room towards his bags of belongings.

"In an hour." Sora grins.

"Alright…" Roxas frowns and unzips one of his bags, "I'm gonna unpack some of my stuff and get it ready for class."

"I'll be out here." Sora decides, gesturing out the door to the main room, "Don't be late!"

After a little while of unpacking, there is very little Roxas can do but clear a small corner of the room and pile his things there. This is a problem, he thinks, which he will have to address later. He walks out of the dorm room and into the main room where Sora and Pence usually play their game. The three friends, including Olette, where once again in the room, now accompanied by a few tired and unfamiliar faces trudging about. Hayner turns to look at Roxas and puts a big smile on his face.

"Hey, buddy." The brown-eyed boy waves a hand, "How was your first night in prison?"

"Roxas slept here, silly." Sora points out. Roxas ignores the question and takes a look around the room.

"What do you do before classes?" he finally asks.

"You hang out." Pence smiles.

"You can eat something, read a book, break a few rules…" Hayner starts, "You're pretty much passing the time." Roxas sighs, as he's not much for 'hanging out'.

"I guess I'll go locate my class room…" he says and turns to leave.

"Hold up just a sec." Hayner raises a finger and Roxas turns back around. "I've been talkin' with the guys and we've decided…" he takes a break and walks up to Roxas, who's looking at him suspiciously, and places a hand on his shoulder, "We've decided that we'd like to take you in as an honorary member of the Nerd faction. Not really for your smarts or anything, but we decided we kinda like you."

"Woah, woah…" Roxas brushes Hayner's hand off of his shoulder, "I didn't ask for this. You are the one who's been pulling me around school."

"Well," Pence smiles, "It's kinda cool to be a part of something, and there's safety in numbers, so…"

"I doubt it will be an investment in my safety to join up with the Nerds…" Roxas takes a step back and frowns, "No offense guys, but I've had a lot of experience with schools, and I don't want to seal away my fate by linking myself to the unpopular group most targeted by the pranks of just about everyone."

"Yeah…" Hayner scoffs sarcastically, "No offense at all."

"Thanks for the offer and all," Roxas turns away, "But I'd rather do things on my own." He then turns and walks out of the building, towards the school.

"Pfft…" Hayner shrugs, "Hardhead…"

"It coulda been worse," Pence points out, "At least he didn't humiliate us, insult us or make an attempt to crush our hopes and dreams."

"Really?" Hayner questions him, "And what do you call what he DID do?"

"Oh," Pence smiles, "That was just fact. There's a difference. We ARE the losers of the school, and we can't hold it against him for having second thoughts."

"You're serious, aren't you?" Olette frowns.

"He's promising!" Pence nods, and Hayner just continues to stare at the door.


	3. Introductions And Bad Food

**Chapter Three: Introductions And Bad Food**

His first day of classes. Roxas wonders about a few things, having spent the last day listening to Hayner's rants about cliques, hierarchies and unwritten rules. _You should be carrying a weapon, huh?_ He thinks, _Are the classes here dangerous too?_ He looks at his schedule of what classes are on what days, given to him shortly before arriving at the school. The paper was clearly crumpled at one point, probably out of Roxas' frustration of being sent to a new school, so it is a little difficult to read. He reads that he has _three classes a day, six classes in total on a rotation of two weeks… the three classes_… _today are_… his mind begins to trail off in another direction. _Maybe it's because I'm tired_, he tries to tell himself, but he knows that he's thinking about Hayner, Pence, Olette and Sora. The four kids who came up to him and began to 'show him the ropes' the previous day had irritated him at first, but thinking back on it, he could walk around the school with a much clearer head when he was with someone. It's not all that odd that he blew them off and refused their friendship. They're the Nerds. Who's a Nerd by choice? Even still… this is the way Roxas had always treated potential friends in the past, and he's never felt this much like he shouldn't have.

One way or another, amongst his thoughts, Roxas finds his first class of the day on the second floor of the school in a corner classroom. English class… a wonderful thing to throw at students first thing in the morning. On the door to the classroom, a sign reads: Reading and Writing are Silent Acts. Roxas is surprised to see that he is one of the first students in the classroom, despite his absentmindedness. In the front of the room, a tall, somewhat young woman with glasses stands completely still, holding a ruler so tight between her two hands that Roxas thinks it might break. In fact, everything about this woman seems to be tight, giving off the feeling of an unwavering strictness that Roxas already knows he won't like. Her blonde hair is tied tight back into a ponytail that loops above her head, her gloves and boots fit tight onto her skin, and her high heels make a sharp point towards the floor. She harshly points the ruler at the wall where several other kids are standing, as if waiting for mug shots.

"Wait over there and I'll assign seats shortly." She says in a stern voice. Shortly there after, Sora skips into the room. Looking to feel just about as awkward as Roxas when the two of them meet eyes, the kid just waves a little and stands against a different part of the wall. A number of people that Roxas doesn't recognize enter the room. Much to Roxas' dismay, Seifer struts in followed by his lackeys, and gives the teacher a cocky nod. A girl about Roxas' age with short black hair and a headband steps into the room. She's wearing a sleeveless black leather top and short leather shorts. Immediately Roxas is trying to classify her into one of the groups Hayner had mentioned as she walks his way.

"New kid?" She asks in a cocky tone, taking the spot on the wall next to him. Seeing the teacher's glaring eyes meet them over this question, Roxas decides it may be better not to respond. So he doesn't.

The very last person to step into the room is Axel. Roxas' eyes widen in interest as the red headed man takes a spot on the wall far away from the others. Roxas would have thought that the teacher would complain about this, but she says nothing for a moment and then begins with the class.

"Alright." She says, grabbing a stack of note cards, "I will be handing out your seat numbers momentarily, along with a name card so that I may know what to call you." She approaches the line of students and begins handing out cards. "The seats are not physically numbered, but the number on your card refers to a seat counted off starting from the chair to your left in the front of the classroom and moving in the direction you should read. Hopefully… most of you are familiar with this direction." Roxas can't help but focus his attention on Sora who already looks completely lost. The teacher scratches writing onto the chalk board as the students all move to their individual seats.

"As you can hopefully read," The teacher starts, "I am Professor Trepe, you can refer to me as such, and this is English 055. In case you are new to this school, this number refers to a placement decided either by your age, skill, or a mixture of the two." She takes a look around the class, meeting no student eye-to-eye, but browsing the name cards standing on the desks, "There will be no talking in this class without raising your hand, and both food and drink are prohibited. Now… moving straight onto the course agenda, your grade will be determined based on class participation and completion of homework and projects. There are a number of books I should hope to get to before the year is up, so we will move right along to the first one on the list. The book title is Loveless," She begins to hand out copies of the book around the room, "It's an epic play originating in Midgar that has spread around the world."

Roxas flips open his copy of the book: Loveless. If he was having a hard time looking at writing when he was reading his schedule, he has no idea what to call this. The whole thing looks to be one giant poem, and already he wants to go to sleep. He does, however, notice that a few kids around the room seem mildly interested. After a short while of discussion about class expectations and future books, Professor Trepe takes out her own copy of Loveless and opens it up.

"Alright, now." She begins, "All of you open up to the first page of the play. Before the bell, we will read a few lines to get you familiarized with the play's style." The students all grudgingly open their books. A few kids had already packed them away in their bags because the bell was about to ring in just a few minutes. The teacher looks around at the names. "Now… Ms. Kisaragi." She calls to the black haired girl Roxas saw earlier.

"Can you call me Yuffie?" She asks.

"Very well, if that's what you'd prefer, but please raise your hand before speaking. Now, Yuffie, read the first two lines of the prologue for us."

"When the war of the beasts brings about the world's end…" Yuffie slowly reads in a monotone, already looking like she wants to sleep, "The goddess descends from the sky…"

"Alright…" Professor Trepe interrupts, "Wakka?" She glances over at a boy with spiked orange hair and a thick blue headband around his forehead. He was obviously paying no attention and now looks up from his table.

"Uh, Here!" he says.

"No…" The teacher crosses her arms, "When I say your name during a reading exercise, I want you to take over where the last reader left off. It's right after the first two lines of the prologue…"

"Oh, ya, okay…" Wakka scrambles to get his book open, "The goddess descends from the sky…"

"Axel…" The teacher says, rolling her eyes. Roxas' focus turns towards the red haired man who now leans forward elegantly over his book.

"Wings of light and dark spread afar," he recites, not noticing Roxas' stare, "She guides us to bliss," he pauses, "her gift everlasting." Roxas' focus doesn't break from Axel and he misses the bell signaling the end of class. He finally realizes that it's time to go as the class around him begins to shuffle out of the room and he hears the teacher saying:

"Thank you, class. Your homework is to read the first two parts of Act I in the play."

Sauntering down the hall aimlessly, Roxas' focus is now torn between the 'friends' he gave up and the school's evidently poetic pyromaniac: Axel. His instinctive ability to find things doesn't fail him as he locates his next classroom without really looking. As he walks in, however, he sees that he could have been a bit earlier as many of the seats are occupied.

"Sit wherever you care to!" The teacher snaps as Roxas comes in. He is a cranky looking older man with greased black hair and glasses. Deep crevasses mark his face in ways that make him look very unfriendly, "As I was saying…" he continues, "I don't care to know any of your names as it will simply take away from the time we could be spending on productive studies. I am sure that I will become familiar with the majority of you as you screw up repeatedly in class. As for the rest of you, I will learn your names through your scientific achievements here in Standard Sciences 024. My name is Professor Hojo, and this is personally one of my least favorite science courses in the school. There is no 'standard science', and attempting to cram all of the essentials of multiple courses worth of material into a single year is lazy and ineffective. Hopefully…" he stops to take a breathe, "most of you are here by year and year alone, and not placement. On that note, we shall do our best to prepare you for some of the important courses you shall take during later years."

Despite Hojo sparing not a single second, the class is nearly over by the time he finishes going over safety and hazards in the classroom and proper conduct. This means that there is really no way the professor can find homework for them to do. Leaving the class after the bell, Roxas can tell that it's going to be a nightmare over the year. Looking at his schedule, he reads that there is now a half-hour break for lunch. He makes his way to the cafeteria, as shown to him by Hayner, and stands in the line for food. They are serving some kind of excuse for a chicken sandwich and fries. After obtaining his meal, Roxas begins to scour the place for a seat. Spotting an empty four seats at the end of an occupied table, he goes to sit down and is met with a rude glare. A blonde girl with her hair gelled back and in two mini arches on top of her head is eyeing him up and down.

"Excuse me?" She sneers, "Those seats are taken."

"By who?" Roxas complains. The sound of a mug slamming down on the table draws Roxas' attention to a large, burly man with messy brown hair and a face that looks like it's carved in stone.

"They're taken…" he grumbles and Roxas stands back up.

"Fine." He says as the large man leers. He glances around the room and sees the table where Hayner, Sora and Olette are sitting. Pence is off purchasing food from the counter. For a moment, Roxas considers approaching them, and then decides against it, making his back comfortable against the cafeteria wall.

Taking a bite out of his sandwich, Roxas gags at how dry it is. Even by touch he can feel that the fries are cold and hard. He tosses his food into the garbage can that has been keeping him company, and waits for the bell to signal the next class. On his walk to the next classroom, Roxas is relieved to see that it's just an art class. He's always thought that art classes are stupid and unnecessary, but they rarely give homework and they tend to attract better teachers than other classes. Roxas can tell that he's correct about this assumption as he enters the room to see a young female teacher with a big brown ponytail sitting on her desk in a long, light purple dress.

"Hey, kid." She smiles, "I put your name on one of the desks. You can sit there, okay?" Once Roxas is sitting and everyone is in class, the woman steps off of her desk and faces the class with a flip of her hair, "Name's, Megara." She smiles, "I won't make you call me Professor or anything but, if you want, you can call me Meg." The blonde girl in a stark white dress behind Roxas had already begun to draw an impressive picture of the teacher sitting on the desk in her drawing pad. Even Roxas, who had never been a major fan of art, can't help but be impressed.

"That's kinda good." Roxas points out uncharacteristically, but the girl just pulls her pad back against her chest and stares at him. Being reminded why he doesn't bother to talk, Roxas turns back around in his seat to face the teacher.

"Unlike your other classes probably do," Meg paces as she talks, "This class doesn't have a placement number. Grades aren't the important thing in art. The important thing is that what you draw is an expression of yourself and your beliefs. When someone looks at a picture you drew, they should be able to tell what kind of person you are, but this just makes it sound too specific. You are graded based solely on attendance and participation in this class. I will have to give prompts for lessons, but as long as it's a similar idea, just draw what your heart wants to draw."

"And what if your heart doesn't want to draw…?" A kid with a white streak down his dark slicked ponytail says. His face has a scar on the cheek and an eye patch covers one eye. It's obvious he's been through his share of fights in the past.

"Then you oughtn't be in an art class, right?" She laughs, "First day here, we'll take it easy. Just draw whatever you'd like, as long as it's appropriate, and I can see how you all express yourselves." A murmur moves through the room when she says appropriate, and the students all open their drawing pads to begin drawing.

Roxas stares at his drawing pad, one hand supporting his head, the other one twirling his pencil. The easiest assignment and he couldn't do it. He's not artistic. He doesn't know what defines him or what expresses him, and he definitely doesn't know how to draw whatever it is. He takes a glance back at the girl behind him. She's drawing a shiny white pearl suspended amongst a school of identical fish. How does she know what to draw? Why can she express these things? Roxas wishes he were drawing a shiny white pearl. In frustration, he turns back around and stares at his pad. He touches the tip of his pencil gently against it and pulls it away again in thought. At the end of the period, the class lines up to show the teacher their drawings one by one. She seems to have a comment for each kid, but so far not a single one has been negative, which makes Roxas feel better as he approaches her and holds out his paper.

"What's this?" Megara asks in interest, taking the paper and examining it. The sheet is mostly blank, and in the center, a single, poorly detailed star sits alone, "Is it complete?" She asks Roxas who responds with a nod, not making eye contact, "Well…" She finally says, "It's simple, but I think it's powerful. You're new here, right?" Roxas looks at her curiously.

"Yeah…" he says.

"You'll be fine." She smiles and pats his shoulder a single time. Exiting the classroom with just those single words leaves Roxas feeling a lot better than he thought he would.

Having finished the final class of the day, Roxas strolls through the hallways, down the stairs and out the door to the school. After a few steps, Roxas is startled to see Hayner, Pence, Olette and Sora standing before him. Hayner stands in front with his arms crossed, starring Roxas in the eyes.

"Yeah… I know…" Roxas frowns, "I was a jerk. Better get used to it." he moves, sulking his way past the group when he's met with Hayner's hand pressed against his chest, stopping him.

"We're going to the 'impassible' gate." Hayner gestures back at the gate to the school.

"And you're coming." Pence points out.

"Huh…? But…" Roxas tries to read them.

"I'll told you I'd show you later right?" Hayner smiles, "Now come on!"


	4. Freedom With A Curfew

**Chapter Four: Freedom With A Curfew**

An encounter that Roxas would have thought to be awkward now has him following the same four students that he had shunned earlier. He had told them, more or less, that their friendship was an unwanted social suicide, yet here they are, walking him around school again as if nothing had ever happened.

"Aren't you guys mad?" He finally asks out of confusion.

"Tch… You're still thinking about that?" Hayner laughs and shakes his head.

"We get that kind of thing every day." Pence nods. The five of them approach the large, black steel gate of the school. Hayner looks up and takes a deep breath.

"Ah… freedom." He smiles, "And the only thing that stands in our way is a giant gate with an intense locking system."

"But you guys didn't bring me this way just to tell me that, right?" Roxas says.

"You're catching on!" Pence says with a finger raised.

"The school has one of the most high tech containing systems around." Olette smiles, "But it does have its weak points."

"Containing system?" Roxas questions the wording.

"Come 'ere!" Hayner gestures and runs off to the side. Following the wall surrounding the school, the five students eventually find themselves in a very small path behind a brick building. The path has overgrown grass that is pressed down in places by the frequent trudging of sneakers and boots.

"The staff don't come back here." Hayner whispers with a grin.

"Are we behind the girls' dorm?" Roxas raises an eyebrow.

"Yep." Olette nods, "But it's closed off so that you can't get here from the front of the dorm, only the way we just came."

"And check this out." Hayner motions for Roxas to follow him, and then gestures behind a large rock. Roxas looks to see a sewer grate creating a hole in the school wall, barred up by several rusty bars. As he looks on, Pence moves in front and removes one of the bars, creating an easy escape from the school. Grinning, Pence and Hayner swerve past the remaining bars and leave the school. Olette gestures for Roxas to go next, and then she and Sora follow him out.

"We're… outside?" Roxas blinks, looking on in wonder at the brown and tan houses and the buildings further off in the distance that mark Twilight Town.

"That's right!" Hayner grins, brushing a cocky hand against his nose.

"From here it's just a short walk to get to the main part of town." Olette points.

"There are a lot of shops and cool stuff there too." Pence grins.

"And ice cream!" Sora jumps in the air in excitement.

"And that's what I'm craving." Hayner smiles. He pauses for a moment as a grin begins to form on his face, "Last one there buys!" With that, he runs down the dirt road towards the buildings.

"Hey wait!" Roxas frowns as the others join in the race. Deciding that he has very few options, he chases after them.

Dashing down the road, hopping over curbs, and dodging people, Roxas catches up to the four others who have, at this point, stopped. Hayner, Pence, Sora and even Olette who had joined in last, all managed to outrun him and are now standing at a set of stairs.

"Figured we'd wait for you." Hayner smiles, "We wouldn't be great tour guides leaving you behind like that."

"I don't have any money…" Roxas huffs.

"What do you mean?" Sora asks with a tilt of his head.

"You said the last one pays." He says, catching his breath, "I didn't bring any money."

"Oh, that was a joke." Olette laughs.

"Yeah," Hayner agrees, "I brought enough for the five of us."

"Have you ever ridden the train?" Sora aks.

"The train?" Roxas frowns, "No… I'm not from around here."

"Well you'll get to ride it now." Hayner smirks, leading the group up a staircase, "We have to take it to get into town." When they get to the top of the staircase, they just manage to catch a train bound in the direction they want to go. With a jerk, the train begins to move and Roxas takes a seat by the window. He's heard about Twilight Town's famous elevated railroads, but he had never ridden one before now. The view is amazing as Roxas can see islands out on the water past the town. The place where the sky meets the water emits a dream like green glow, and for a moment, Roxas forgets that there's anyone else aboard with him.

"So if you're not from around here…" Pence startles Roxas out of his daze, "Then you probably haven't tried sea salt ice cream, huh?"

"No…" Roxas says plainly. Sea salt ice cream is another thing he had heard about a while back. Yet another thing that Twilight Town is famous for. _I guess it may look good that I went to a school here someday_, Roxas thinks.

"Man!" Hayner laughs, "You haven't had sea salt ice cream? No wonder you're so mopey all the time!"

"It's really good!" Sora smiles. Roxas doesn't like Hayner's assessment, but Sora's comment seams to ease him a bit. They arrive at a station, and when they exit the train, Roxas can see that it is a rather large place with multiple tracks for incoming and outgoing locomotives.

"Station Plaza!" Pence says enthusiastically, "At the peak of Station heights, this is the pinnacle of the best transportation in all of Twilight Town!" The five kids walk out of the station, which upon exiting, Roxas realizes is built into a very large clock tower, "Station Heights is the homeland of the triple Ts." Pence goes on, his charisma sounds like a commercial ad.

"Triple Ts?" Roxas and Sora inquire together.

"Twilight Town Tourists." Hayner clarifies, apparently on the same page as Pence, "They love coming here because of all the shops and the clock tower." They all stroll down a well paved, down hill path, bustling with many people. Shops with outside counters are built into the walls, and stands are set up where people are advertising various things. The whole area is a bit louder than Roxas is accustomed to, but it isn't bothering him as much as he would think.

Hayner leads them all past the shops and to the bottom of the sloped path into a wide-open area with trams driving about here and there. He steps up to a shop with pictures of Ice Cream and sweets around the sides.

"Ah, Hayner!" The man inside smiles, "Four as usual?"

"Five actually." Hayner gestures to Roxas, "We've got a newcomer today."

"Well, well!" The man smiles at Roxas who makes no attempt to smile back, "Nice to meet you, newcomer."

"This is Roxas." Hayner says, pointing, "Roxas, this is Biggs."

"Hey…" Roxas says as usual.

"Well." Biggs turns around and rummages through a large freezer, "Five it is. Here you go!" He hands out five popsicles to the group. Roxas examines it, questioning the blue coloring. After Hayner pays, he gives a casual wave to the ice cream man and begins to walk again. Roxas thinks that they're going to go back up the busy path until Hayner takes a different path that leads them through a sandy lot and into an alleyway. The brown eyed boy steps into the corner of the alley and pushes open a chain link door on a fence.

"Where are we?" Roxas questions as they step inside. It is a somewhat well furnished room for being in an alleyway, with a dartboard on the wall and remnants of an unfinished card game on the table.

"This is our hang out spot." Olette says and then turns to Pence, "And I told you that our cards would still be here."

"I just don't think it's safe leaving them lying around is all." Pence shrugs, taking a seat on a comfy looking couch.

"Not a bad place." Roxas says, sitting on a chair as the others all take seats too.

"Yeah." Pence smiles, "It even has a radiator so we can hang out here in the winter."

"Spiffy!" Sora adds.

"The best part is that everyone knows it's our turf." Hayner smiles, his arms propped up on the back of his chair, ice cream in his mouth.

Roxas takes his first lick of the sea salt ice cream. Immediately he can tell that it's one of his favorite flavors. It's a taste that's difficult to describe. Kinda salty and kinda sweet. No wonder Twilight Town is famous for it.

"So…" Roxas says after another lick, "Do a lot of people know about how to get out of school?"

"A few of the students do." Hayner shrugs, "But we keep it quiet to prevent any of the prefects from finding out."

"They'd seal it up for good!" Pence agrees.

"I suppose it's not all that safe to leave." Olette decides out loud, "I mean, you have to get back before curfew or you're sealed out."

"What about the way we came out?" Roxas questions.

"The school's got a barrier." Pence shrugs, "Kind of an electric field that they turn on at night. Pretty high tech stuff."

"You can get out through it," Hayner begins, "but you can't get back in. Not until they shut it off the next day."

"Geez…" Roxas frowns in disgust, "They really want to punish students that bad?"

"It's not about the punishment." Olette shakes her head, "It's about safety. In fact, a lot of parents send their kids to this school because of how safe it is. Especially since the Heartless started making trouble." It just suddenly clicks in Roxas' head why the name Sunset Hill was so familiar. He had heard about the Heartless in the past, but he thought it was just a rumor.

"The Heartless?" Roxas questions, hoping it was a joke.

"Don't feel bad." Sora says, "I don't really know who they are either."

"They're an occult group." Pence says in his best spooky voice, "They haven't done anything too close to where we are, but they say that there have been kidnappings and such further out."

"Seriously!?" Sora says in an over dramatic way, shoving his hands over his mouth.

"What a great place for a school…" Roxas says sarcastically.

"Well that's why the field's so important." Olette points out, "They usually only turn it on at night, but it can go on whenever they need it. If something bad ever were to happen, it would be safest there."

"I guess so…" Roxas admits, "But we'd better be back before curfew."

"Don't worry, buddy," Hayner smiles, "We do this all the time. Now lets stop talking about school, it's depressing."

Roxas looks awkwardly back and forth at the people around him. He's not used to doing things like this. In fact, this may be the first time that he's intentionally 'hung out' with people. Part of him wonders what it will do to his image.

"Thanks…" He says out of nowhere, "for the ice cream. It must've cost you."

"Nah…" Hayner waves his hand in a dismissive way, "You remember that guy out there? Biggs?"

"Yeah?" Roxas nods.

"Well he's a little connection I have here in the town. Even though I'm not supposed to be out of school, he finds work for me and pays for it."

"Isn't that child labor?" Roxas inquires with an accusatory look.

"Meh." Hayner shrugs, "Labor with benefits. He even gives me a discount on the ice cream."

"Do you like it by the way?" Olette looks at Roxas.

"Oh yeah! You haven't had it before!" Sora gets excited.

"Yeah…" Roxas nods slowly, "Yeah, it's pretty good."

"Glad to hear it." Hayner smiles, kicking himself up out of his seat, "We oughta head back now. Don't forget we got a train ride on the way."

The five kids stroll down the streets of Twilight Town and finally up the path towards Station Plaza. It's not as busy now as it had been earlier, and the sky has become just a little darker while they were inside. When they enter the plaza, they aren't as lucky as they were the first time, and they end up having to wait for the next train to come in. While they are waiting, Roxas fidgets a bit and then finally looks up at the others.

"I've been thinking about it, guys…" He begins and hesitates, "I really wouldn't mind hanging out with you all."

"It'd be a bit too late if you actually did." Hayner laughs, but Roxas looks gloomy.

"That's… not really what I meant." He looks at Hayner, "I know you guys are trying to make me feel better, but I was a jerk earlier. I guess I'm just not used to all this…"

"Don't worry about it." Pence gives him a thumbs up.

"We'd love to be friends with you." Olette smiles. Roxas blushes a little bit as he had tried to avoid the word friendship. He's still not used to this kind of thing, but he's starting to decide that it really isn't all that bad.

"Sure…" Roxas says after a moment, "Friends." The train pulls into the station and everyone gets situated into their seats. As it makes its way back towards Sunset Hill, Roxas watches the fading sunlight on the water and the islands. Feeling the warmth on his face left over from the blush and still tasting the sea salts ice cream in his mouth, Roxas decides that it really is time to make a new start.

The group leaves the train, this time walking the path leading back to the school. They slip back into the school, replacing the rusty bar after them, and then move along the wall back to the main gate.

"Have a goodnight guys." Olette waves before heading off towards the girls' dorm.

"Goodnight! See you tomorrow!" Sora waves after her.

"Keep it down." Hayner frowns, "I think we may have just made curfew, so I don't want to get caught by any of the stingy prefects who could still be lingering about." The four boys sneak their way back to their dorm and finally part ways inside. Sora and Roxas step into their room, and as Sora begins to get changed into the same pair of pajamas as the previous night, he gives Roxas an odd look. Roxas has climbed up onto his bed already, still fully clothed. His chains make a clinking sound as he lies back with his arms behind his head.

"You're gonna sleep like that again?" Sora makes a sort of slanted frown.

"Yeah." Roxas nods, "I'll change into something else tomorrow morning."

"Somebody's really gotta get you some bed clothes." He shakes his head, slipping on his PJs and climbing into bed.

"By the way, Sora?" Roxas says up on his bed.

"Yeah?"

"Now that there's two of us in here, we have to split up the space a little."

"Oh…" Sora considers this, "You can get half the room, okay?"

"Sounds fair." Roxas nods, "So can I take down some of your stuff?"

"Yeah just leave it on the stool over there." Sora points off to a pile of miscellaneous stuff in the corner that is apparently built over a stool.

"Thanks, Sora." Roxas smiles.

"Did you have fun today?" Sora inquires with a yawn.

"Yeah…" Roxas says softly. The light flicks off as Sora yawns again.

"That's good." He says, closing his eyes. Roxas stares at the stars on the ceiling and all of the good feelings he got out of the day lead him back to a single unexpected thought: Axel reading poetry. Not even registering the fact that his roommate has begun to snore, Roxas lets out one last, soft response as he closes his eyes.

"Yeah…"


	5. Volley For Dummies

**Chapter Five: Volley For Dummies**

Roxas twitches awake as Sora's alarm clock rings. He opens his eyes only to be met with a bright flash.

"Ugh!" He shields his face with an arm.

"Heh… Sorry." Sora smiles, lowering down a small camera that's attached to a string around his neck, "You looked happy in your sleep so I wanted a picture."

"Why were you watching me sleep?" Roxas complains, sitting up in bed and nearly hitting his head again, "And what's with the camera?"

"Oh! This is Merlin." Sora grins, eyes shut tight.

"Merlin…?"

"Yeah! My camera!" He points to it, "I usually carry it around with me, but I forgot it yesterday. I'm sorry, Merlin." Roxas raises an eyebrow and climbs out of bed.

"So let me guess…" He stretches, "We have an hour before classes?" Sora nods.

"Yup!" the grinning boy hoists up his blue book bag, "I'll be out here!" he runs into the main room. Roxas takes a look at his schedule for today's classes. _Math, History, and Gym_, he reads, _sounds like a lot of fun…_. He puts the schedule away and follows Sora out into the room where all his new friends, including Olette, are hanging out and munching on dry cereal.

"Morning!" Olette waves to him as he sits down.

"Hey." Roxas responds with a yawn that he tries to hide.

"You know what this is the perfect opportunity for?" Pence lights up, "Teaching you how to play Kingdom Hearts!" Roxas is startled to see Pence's finger aimed at him.

"No… uh, that's fine." Roxas tries to be polite, "I was going to try and find my—"

"No really!" Pence begins to place things around the table, "It's easy!" Roxas tries to think of a way out as Pence starts a rant, "This counter is for your health point and this one is for you card points. You start with two hundred and fifty health points or hp, and sixty card points…" Roxas' attention drifts off to a chuckling Hayner and the sorrowful look given to him by Olette. Sora seems to be looking on in interest, "All those cards use your cp…" Pence continues and it's clear Roxas has already missed something, "…all out, then you have to put back your hand, skip a turn and shuffle the deck. This can be…"

"Why don't you let the guy find his class Pence?" Hayner laughs, "It's just his second day, after all." Roxas doesn't even register this comment nor the reluctant statement that he'll have to be taught later made by Pence. His focus is once again drawn to the same man it has been so frequently drawn to. Axel has walked down the stairs of the dorm and, without a word, is now exiting from the building. This isn't a particularly exciting event, yet for some reason, Roxas is totally intrigued. _It must be the effects of Pence's rant…_

"You okay there, buddy?" Hayner pushes his knuckles against Roxas' shoulder.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Roxas shakes his head, "Just worried I won't have time to find class."

"You've got nearly an hour, but go ahead." Hayner shrugs, "But we should meet back up at lunch time."

"Yeah." Olette nods in agreement, "I didn't see you there yesterday."

"Yeah…" Roxas considers this, "I'm kinda hungry anyway. The only thing I've really eaten since I got here was that ice cream." Pence offers him a handful of dried cereal and he turns it down. Pence shrugs.

"I told you that you gotta eat something." Hayner shakes his head, "You need your strength in this school."

"You're probably right…" Roxas stands up from his chair, "I'm gonna go find class. Wait for me at lunch time today, okay?" The others nod and wave as Roxas walks out of the dorm. Heading down towards the school, Roxas looks from student to student in an attempt to distinguish them based on their clique. He's never really liked people's stereotypes for one another, but ever since Hayner introduced them, it's been almost like a game for Roxas to try and figure out who is what. He sees the Librarian's assistant, Zexion, as pointed out to him by Hayner during his first visit to the caf. Next to Zexion is a tall, snobby looking, pale white woman in a long black cloak with a tight hood. She is apparently a student and therefore a Goth, and Roxas decides that she's probably the Goth Queen that Hayner mentioned: Maleficent. This assumption is partially based on the fancy staff she's carrying. _I guess that's not considered a weapon_, Roxas thinks.

On his way to class, Roxas believes that he has successfully categorized four Goths, three Preps, four Nerds, two Greasers, two Jocks, a couple of Punks if that's even one of Hayner's categories, and an Emo. Having left rather early, Roxas arrives at the door to his class about fifteen minutes too soon. Standing next to the door at the opposite end is a tall boy with long silver hair that spikes down to his shoulder blades. His arms are crossed and his head is leaned forward, covering his eyes in silver bangs. On his hands, he wears a very short style of black gloves. His short, vest-covered shirt and baggy pants make him look like a Punk. Considering this grim and shadowed appearance to be very similar to himself in the past, Roxas decides it his duty to greet the boy.

"Hey what's up?" Roxas asks, mimicking the other boy's stance. Getting absolutely no response, Roxas tries again, "Hey." He waves his hand at the guy and is met with a fierce glare even more hostile than his own tends to be. _What's this guys problem?_ Roxas wonders to himself. At this point, he can't tell whether it's determination, stubbornness, or an old habit wanting to provoke the boy that drives him to turn and face his direction with another attempt, "My name's Roxas."

"Good for you." The boy scoffs in a somewhat deep voice. Both his height and his voice make it obvious that he's at least a bit older than Roxas.

"And yours is…?" Roxas presses. The boy's gloves make a crunching sound as they tighten into fists in his crossed arms. This pressing probably would have continued for the full fifteen minutes and most likely resulted in a fight if it weren't for the approach of a girl who draws Roxas' attention with a few soft words.

"Waiting for Math class?" She smiles a close-eyed smile very similar to Sora's. She looks to be a rather modest but pretty girl. Her long brown hair is braided behind her head and fastened with a pink bow, and she wears a matching pink dress that flows down to her oddly booted feet.

"Yeah." Roxas responds, reluctantly turning his gaze to her.

"You're new right? I'm Aerith."

"Roxas." He returns. After a few minutes, several other kids had arrived and, finally, the teacher walks up and opens the door. Roxas notices the opening door before he notices the teacher, who is a rather short and stout man with bits of messy gray hair sticking up around his head. As the students shuffle into the room, they are given no direction as to where they should sit, so they simply pick a spot. Roxas' seat is around the center of the classroom, and the silver haired boy's is in the back left corner of the room in a very similar place to Axel's seat in English. Once again, Roxas is thinking about Axel. Perhaps he's just a got a weird thing about mysterious, quiet people who keep to themselves. Maybe that's what was driving him no nag the silver haired boy as well. Roxas finds that it's very difficult to lie to himself in his head, however, as he knows that his interest in Axel and his interest in this new boy feel entirely different.

The stout teacher stretches up on his tiptoes and scribbles a few things on the board. He then turns around to face the class with a wide smile on his face. His appearance looks very much like that of a big frog balancing a little pair of glasses on his nose.

"Either by placement or by year," he begins in a voice that seems to fluctuate from low to high, "You have all wound up one way or another here in Math 035. Hello!" he lets a froggy little laugh, placing his hands on his chest, "My name is Mr. Fabool, and I will be teaching you a variety of different topics in math ranging from basic algebra to an introduction in trigonometry. Perhaps if we finish the curriculum fast enough, we can get to learn things that other classes don't!" he laughs again and the students can't seem to tell if he's joking or not, "Now, as it is our first day, I would like it if we could all introduce ourselves and tell each other a little something about us." He looks around the room, "My name is Cid Fabool and I am quite fond of numbers. It's as easy as that. Any volunteers to go next?" Aerith raises her hand and stands from her desk.

"My name is Aerith Gainsborough, and I like to grow flowers in my free time." She says.

"Very good!" The teacher claps, "Next?" Roxas decides to zone out for a bit while everyone is introducing themselves. He can tell that this is one of those teachers that will make them do verbal presentations in front of the class and work in groups a lot. That is very rarely the kind of activity that he enjoys. Watching the minutes on the clock go by, he's broken out of his trance when the teacher points to the silver haired boy to go next.

"How about you boy?" the teacher asks in interest. After a short silence, Roxas wonders whether or not the boy had been paying enough attention to know he was spoken to.

"Riku…" The kid doesn't even look up. _This guy's full of himself_, Roxas thinks.

"Yes, and about yourself…?" The teacher questions again. Just then, the bell to signal the end of class goes off. The students immediately take off out of their seats and begin to stream out of the room.

"Class is over, I suppose!" The teacher ribbits behind them, "We'll continue in two days!"

Despite his zoning, Roxas decides that that must have been one of the longest hours he's spent in class so far. Against his better judgement, he moves in to chase the silver haired boy down the hall.

"Riku, huh?" he grins and then dodges a swinging arm as the boy turns around angrily.

"Why are you following me!?" he snaps, exposing his blue eyes from beneath his hair.

"Just trying to be friendly…" Roxas' voice takes a less superior tone.

"Well I'm not exactly looking for friends," he turns away, "So keep to yourself!" He briskly walks off, leaving Roxas shaken in the hall.

"Geez…" Roxas frowns, "What was that about?" Checking his schedule, Roxas moves towards his next classroom. The history classrooms are close by the math ones, so he makes it there pretty quickly. The teacher, yet another old man, is already in the room, writing on the board. Unlike his last teacher, this man looks to have a bit more of a grumpy demeanor. His face is scrunched in a series of wrinkles, bringing his small beard close to his nose where a pair of glasses are sitting. His scrawny body is bent over an old cane and the writing he's doing on the board looks to be a fancy form of cursive handwriting. Not all too good to take notes from. As the class files in, one kid at a time, Roxas is disappointed to see that Axel is not in this class either.

As the class begins, Roxas' thoughts are once again off switching between Axel and his four new friends. He figures that he isn't missing much as he tunes in now and then for the class introduction. Mr. McDuck, as he introduces himself, is quite a bit less than unique amongst teachers, and the only thing that comes close to humorous about him is his name. They have already jumped into a discussion about history and the assignment of taking notes on a chapter in their history book before the bell to the class went off. This is just his second day, and already Roxas can feel the classes grading on him. He has only one more class left to the day, but first he has lunch. He remembers that he had told Hayner and the others that he'd meet them at lunch today, so he quickly moves off to the cafeteria.

When he gets to the caf, Roxas can see Hayner and Olette taking seats at a table and Pence, who motions for him to come over, standing at the end of the food line.

"What's up?" Pence says as Roxas gets in line behind him, "They're serving pizza today. It's one of the only good things they serve here." He pauses, "Actually, I was just gonna get a whole one and split it with the table if you'd like to join us?"

"Sure." Roxas nods, "In that case I think I'll wait over there." He points to the table.

"Be right there then." Pence nods and Roxas moves to join the others. Him and Sora get to the table at almost the same.

"Glad to see you didn't forget about us." Hayner smirks.

"Awww, Roxas couldn't forget about us." Sora laughs.

"How are classes?" Olette asks, "You aren't in any of mine so far."

"Mine neither." Hayner shrugs, "Where've you been?"

"My classes have been okay I guess." Roxas decides, "It's a little hard to concentrate in some of them… especially my last class."

"I know, right?" Pence walks up with the pizza and places it down on the table in the center, "Can you believe McDuck gave us that much homework the first day?"

"Wait…" Roxas frowns, "You were in that class?"

"You didn't notice me?" Pence scratches the back of his neck, "Yeah. I was there."

"I wasn't paying enough attention to catch the homework." Roxas admits.

"Seriously?" Pence says in shock, "How do you get by in your other classes? The homework is outlining chapter one in the book and answering questions one through five and seven through ten." Roxas copies that down to the best of his ability in his notebook and grabs a slice of pizza.

Out of nowhere, an apple core flies over Roxas' shoulder and lands on the pizza. Startled, Roxas gets out of his seat and spins around to see the man with the scar and eye patch from his art class.

"Whoopsy-Daisy." The man shrugs with a smug grin, "My mistake."

"Bull!" Roxas flails, "Why would you be throwing your apple core around anyway?"

"Roxas?" Olette frowns.

"I mistook you for a trash barrel." The man laughs loudly.

"You trying to start something?" Roxas grits his teeth.

"Gee…" The man ponders and then outstretches his arms invitingly to the sides, "Well I just don't know."

"Roxas!" Pence puts a hand on the blonde's shoulder, "It's fine. Happens all the time."

"It's not fine!" Roxas yells in protest.

"Cool down, buddy." Hayner shakes his head, "It's not worth it." Angrily, Roxas take his seat again and tosses the apple core off to the side. The rest of the lunch period is surprisingly quiet as Roxas gnaws on his pizza in frustration. When the bell rings, the five friends say goodbye, after making plans to meet after classes, and part ways down the halls. Roxas takes a look at his schedule. The last class on his list is… Gym. He remembers that Hayner said the Gym is a ways behind the school, so he rolls his eyes and begins to head in the right direction. Roxas has never been fond of Gym class. He's physical enough to do well in the class, but he believes that it must be some kind of strange requirement to have at least one egotistical, thick sculled jock that thinks he's better than everyone else and wants to make it known. Generally, making it known takes the form of humiliating the less skilled students in the class. And so is the ritual of things. Of course, Roxas can't really think of a class that he IS particularly fond of.

Roxas steps out of the main building and begins to circle it to get around to the back. Seifer and his two goons notice Roxas as he passes by.

"Where're you headed, newbie?" Seifer bears a hostile grin.

"Gym class…" Roxas scoffs, passing by the three of them without exchanging glances. After just a moment, Roxas can hear the three of them walking a few feet behind him.

"Why are you following me?" He turns around defensively. Seifer lets out a very loud laugh and Raijin laughs along with him. Fuijin remains serious.

"Because," Seifer begins, "If the late bell goes off, we get to force you into class."

"Better keep movin', y'know?" Raijin chuckles.

"Get a life." Roxas snarls, turning back around and picking up the pace.

"Belittling the prefect's duty?" Seifer says, following him again, "Not enough to take you down for, but it can go on my list." Roxas grits his teeth. He steps into the gym only seconds before the bell goes off. He can hear the exaggerated disappointment followed by laughter coming from the trio behind him.

"You, Roxas?" An older blonde man calls from the center of the gym. He squints his eyes at Roxas and removes a pencil from between his teeth.

"Yeah?" Roxas returns.

"Well then hurry up an' get in line!" The man shouts at the boy, "I already took attendance! You think the world waits on ya?"

"Fine…" Roxas says, taking the end of the line up of students that has formed in front of the coach.

"Damn right it's fine!" The man snaps, "Now listen up! Name's Cid Highwind. I coach multiple sport teams here in S.H. and every single one of them teams are winners. Now, on that note, I will not put up with people who slack off. Don't be tellin' me you can't play the game, 'cause ya can! Maybe you can't play worth a chocobo's ass, but you can still play. Today's a freebie, but I alsa expect ya to come in wearin' the right cloths. You can't be runnin' around in them chains and baggy pants. There'll be no open toed shoes or things that'll slip off, and keep your places to yourself! Any questions?" The whole class, which Roxas notices includes Sora, stays completely quiet. Roxas also sees that Riku's standing in the line, already returning a glare in his direction. "Good!" the coach brushes his fist against his nose, "Then let's get this over with. Our first game that we'll be doin' is volleyball. It can be a sissy little game, but it can also be a serious sport!" a grin forms on his face, "We're gonna start off with a test game to see all o' your skills. If ya don't know how ta play the game… wing it for now." He takes a pause as the students exchange glances, "It may seem cruel and unusual… but what the hell."

And so, the game of volleyball commences. Roxas and Sora end up on opposing teams, but Roxas' attention is more focused on the silver haired boy, Riku, who he is opposing. The ball flies around for a bit, being hit hard by some, softly by others, precisely by some, and awkwardly by others. Roxas hears the coach yell at one point:

"Come on, Sora! This isn't dodge ball!" But it doesn't seem to matter. Sora is avoiding the ball to the best of his ability, and Roxas bets that he doesn't know how to play. The ball continues flying around in this manner for a while until it meets up with Roxas and Riku, eye to eye and glaring from opposite sides of the net. Roxas hits the ball up over the net, and Riku moves to intercept it, knocking it back over. Roxas takes the opportunity to bounce it to the side where Riku isn't playing, and the coach's whistle goes off, signaling the blonde's point. Roxas stands there for a moment with a cocky grin while Riku retrieves the ball. Riku's serve is an overhand that makes Roxas have to back step to hit it. He manages, however, but the silver haired boy hops gracefully up into the air and spikes the ball down for a point. Roxas is no longer grinning as he's given a cocky look from his opponent. Another boy goes to fetch the ball, but Roxas beats him to it. Riku and Roxas begin to exchange volleys at a faster and faster pace. At one point, nearly every other player is simply keeping their space and letting the two boys play. Advantages are taken, and rough blows are served, until Roxas sees the opportunity of a lifetime. Riku is standing on the far left from Roxas' position, having just hit the ball over the net, and as all other players have become a faded blur in Roxas' mind, there is a wide open spot to the right for the winning point. Roxas sprints to the ball's location, shoving a kid out of his way. With a high leap into the air, everything seems to go into slow motion as Roxas performs a violent spike. The hit sends the ball flying down through the air, the sound echoing through the gym. It flies down, out of any of the blurry player's grasps and straight towards the scrunching nose of a boy who becomes clearer by the second.

In horror, Roxas squeezes his eyes shut as the ball is about to impact with Sora's frail nose. With shut eyes, he can hear another loud sound coming from the ball being hit, and gasps that ensue. He slowly opens his eyes to see Riku with his arm outstretched in front of Sora's face. The volleyball lands with a soft bounce and rolls along the ground. From underneath his hanging bangs, Riku's eye glares fiercely at Roxas and he moves his arm from out of its protective position.

"Good job." Riku scoffs sarcastically in a particularly hostile tone. The look on Sora's face as he stares up at Riku indicates that he may not even know what just happened, but the look on everyone else's makes it very clear that they do.

"That's all for today, folks." Coach Highwind finally says as the bell rings, "Come dressed for gym next time or it'll be a zero for ya!" As the class files out of the gym, Riku gives Roxas one final glare and walks out of sight.


	6. A Nap In The Real World

**Chapter Six: A Nap In The Real World**

Having finally finished his second day of classes, Roxas walks out of the gym side by side Sora to meet their friends on campus. Feeling greatly taxed by almost breaking his friend's nose with a volleyball, one of the last things Roxas wants to do is have a conversation, so naturally, Sora turns his head to speak.

"Who was that guy?" The boy asks in an obvious interest.

"Some jerk from my math class." He shrugs in response.

"What's his name?" Sora pushes. Roxas gives him a suspicious look.

"You're actually curious about that guy?" He frowns in disgust.

"He was cool!" Sora nods rapidly.

"He's a creep!" Roxas flails.

"Please tell me his name? Pleeeeease?" Sora begs and Roxas rolls his eyes.

"He's Riku…" he sighs.

"Riku, huh? Did you see the way he ran across the gym to hit that ball?" Sora presses his hands together in delight, and Roxas is reminded of a grateful Princess who has just been saved from the dragon.

"Yeah… great." The blond decides not to point out his assertion during the game.

"I think I got a picture." Sora says, fiddling with his camera, Merlin, that's hanging from a string around his neck.

"You wore that to gym?" Roxas says in confusion, "No… never mind that. You had enough time to take a picture?"

"I didn't really take it." Sora smiles, "Merlin likes to take pictures when he's bumped around. I jerked back when Riku's hand came in front of me and it took this. See?" Sora holds out a blurry preview picture displayed on the screen of his camera. The picture isn't much more than Riku's arm, but there is a small space above it that shows a better view of Riku's blue eyes than Roxas has yet been able to get.

"Hmmmf…" Is all Roxas has to say, not wanting to admit that it isn't a bad picture, all things considered.

Roxas senses that he won't have too much luck trying to talk to Sora about anything other than Riku at the moment, and decides to remain silent as the two of them walk down the path towards the main building where they had planned to meet Hayner and the gang. About halfway down the path, the two boys start to pass by the blond girl in white from Roxas' art class. She glances up from her drawing pad, looking at Roxas in some sort of consideration, but with the weariness of an only pet being introduced to another for the first time. Roxas doesn't notice the girl's stare and walks right by her.

"You said he was in your math class?" Sora asks from nowhere.

"Who?" Roxas barely registers Sora's question as his view follows Axel down a nearby path. He thinks to himself; _The least I could do is thank him for picking up my books_, then he takes a deep breath and steps forward, completely ignoring Sora's answer. At the same time, the artist girl decides to act on a whim before the two boys are out of sight.

"Riku!" Sora clarifies.

"Axel!" Roxas moves forward.

"Roxas…!" The blond girl trails off as she yells.

"Buddy!" Hayner steps forward into Roxas' path and places a hand on his chest, "Woah, what's the rush?" He asks. For a moment, Roxas makes a weak attempt to see past Hayner and get Axel's attention, but the redheaded man hadn't even flinched at his name being called and is soon out of sight.

"What?" He looks at Hayner in what almost looks like disgust.

"What do you mean, _what_?" The brown-eyed boy ignores the tone, "Today's the day you begin on your path towards manhood!"

"Why do I not like the sound of that?" he says, crossing his arms.

"Don't get yourself excited, buddy. This is just the first step."

"_What's_ the first step?" Roxas grows impatient.

"You'll find out." Hayner grins and grabs Roxas' arm, "Come on, we're going back to town!" As Hayner pulls the flailing boy off towards the gate and Sora skips merrily behind them, the blond girl shifts her feet a bit, clutching her drawing pad in her arms, and sits back down on her bench.

Before he knows it, Roxas is once again riding the elevated train into the bustling tourist town. Despite the fact that Sunset Hill is a boarding school, it seems to be giving Roxas a deeper feeling of freedom than he's felt in a long time. Classes still seem to be a bore, and maybe even tough, and students seem to have less successful supervision which allows them, and maybe even urges them, to take free range over the weaker kids, but it still feels liberating. Not having to go home to an Orphanage every night. Being able to run away to town and still come back at night. Even though leaving the school is restricted at Sunset Hill, if he DORS do it, he doesn't have to knock on the front door and inevitably face a load of scolding to get back into the place where he sleeps. These things probably don't mean too much to other people, but to Roxas, it's a world of difference. It almost feels like a home, but without the over watchful foster parents who think you might steal all their valuables and run away during the night.

The train comes to a halt in station plaza. It's still only Roxas, Hayner and Sora who exit the train, and Roxas begins to wonder where the others disappeared off to. The journey continues as Roxas is led by the wrist through the bustling streets of Station Heights, down the alleyway near the usual hang out spot, through the Sand Lot and into the Tram Common. His eyes turn towards the ice cream shop as he tries to guess their destination, but Hayner leads him right by it.

"I can walk myself, you know!" Roxas pulls his arm away in frustration.

"Well then come on." Hayner says, not even slowing down, "We're almost there!" Roxas grudgingly follows Hayner as Sora mumbles cocky little hints indicating that he knows exactly where they're going.

Finally, Hayner slams open the door to a shop marked by neon lights spelling out the name: Three Wishes. The place is quite obviously an arcade, as many old school games are spread across the interior and prizes line the walls. In front of the prizes and behind a counter stands a weighty man with black hair tied up into a bandanna. The man seems to be in some sort of deep discussion with Pence, and Olette is playing some sort of skateboarding game nearby. The discussion comes to a halt as Hayner lets out a cough to get his friends' attention.

"Roxas!" Olette smiles and hops off of her game, collecting tickets.

"Ah, the initiation begins…" Pence says in a devious voice.

"This is my first step into manhood?" Roxas slowly eyes the place, "An arcade?"

"Hold your horses, would ya?" The leading boy smiles at him and turns his glance to the man behind the counter, "What's up, Wedge?"

"Got a new one with you today?" The man behind the counter gestures to Roxas.

"Yeah, we're going to show him the D.T.D."

"Ohhhh…" The man's expression turns serious as he nods.

"D.T.D.? What is this?" Roxas protests.

"D.T.D. is the Door To Darkness." Pence clues him in, "It's a game here."

"It's really fun!" Sora ads.

"A game…?" He frowns at the thought. _I was brought all this way for a game?_

"Yep." Hayner nods, "A virtual reality game to be precise."

"The only one we have." Wedge says from behind the counter.

Olette steps forward to speak, "You wear a virtual reality helmet so that you feel like you're really there, and you use a bopper sword to simulate the one you have in the game." She uses interpretive motions with her arms, swinging as she explains.

Roxas tries to understand why all four of his friends are going into an explanation about this game. He has never been one for video games, and although he has to admit that the skateboarding one that Olette was playing looks like fun, he very much prefers the real thing. _How is this supposed to be my first step into manhood?_ He thinks to himself, still stuck on that line. His friends continue to explain the game, and he finds himself dragged over to an arcade game with a big mat like area in front of it, most likely to allow for room when people swing the bopper sword. After dipping in and out of listening to his friends, he flails his arms a bit to silence them for a moment.

"I'm sorry…" He frowns, "But what does this game have to do with anything?"

"You still don't get it?" Hayner laughs and Roxas grows scornful, "Alright then… remember how everyone should be carrying weapons in school?"

"By your figuring, yes." He taps his foot impatiently.

"Well Sora's weapon is a nicely carved wooden sword, and he's really good with it. Can you guess _why_ he's really good with it?"

"Because I play this game all the time!" Sora answers for him.

"Sora's a bastard at this game." Pence laughs, "I haven't been able to get anywhere near his high score."

"So you…" Hayner continues, "are going to be playing this game for a bit of training."

"You want me to use a sword?" Roxas questions, eyeing the game.

"Yup." The brown-eyed boy grins wide, "I've already got Biggs making one for you."

"Biggs?" Roxas pauses, "That guy makes weapons for kids too?"

At that, Roxas is put to his training. For what feels like hours, Roxas finds himself amerced in a 3D world, fighting off knights, skeletons, pirates and dragons. At first, he feels like a bit of a prisoner being forced into playing the game. That feeling transforms into feeling as if he belongs in one of Sora's fantasy posters. Before he knows it, Roxas is actually enjoying the game. Instead of simply moving his thumbs and pressing buttons, this game has Roxas actually dodging to the left and to the right, and swinging his sword around through the air. There are a few times that Roxas is worried he might hit someone in the real world with his swinging. After losing the game his fifth time, Roxas takes off his helmet and steps off of the mat. Hayner pats him on the back and Sora cheers.

"You need a little work," Pence evaluates, "But you show a lot of promise."

"Promise?" Roxas frowns, taking a seat on the chair of another game to rest, "I kept losing…"

"None of us have won it yet." He smiles, "Not even Sora. You can still make high scores without winning. I don't expect you to beat Sora, but maybe you'll make one of the top ten one day."

"Thanks… but how often do I have to play this?"

"Often enough…" Hayner pushes off of a game he was resting on. "Biggs said the sword wouldn't take long, but you don't want to suck with it, right?"

"I guess…" Roxas frowns, "I still don't see why we need weapons."

"That's 'cause you're still in your first days." Pence points out, "You'll see the place get tough once everyone's settled into the new school year."

"Anyway, we should be heading back." Hayner says, stepping over to the door and pushing it open. He pauses and takes a look back at the man behind the counter, "You didn't hear anything about taking weapons to the school, 'kay?"

"About what?" Wedge asks, faking oblivion, "My hearing seems to be off today."

"Good man." Hayner smiles and leads the group out the door.

As the troop of five friends make their way back into Station Plaza, the bells are going off at the top of the clock tower. Enjoying the sound, Roxas notes to himself that he's never heard it before. _It must be later than we went back last time_, he thinks, but he changes his mind as he sees that the sun is still high in the sky and there are still many people around. Despite feeling as though he was playing the game for forever, Roxas realizes that hardly any time had actually gone by.

"Wow." He says, mostly to himself, "It's still early." After just a train ride and a short walk back, the five friends find themselves back inside the gates of Sunset Hill.

"So what now?" Sora glances around at his company.

"I don't know about these guys," Pence starts, turning to Sora, "But you and me got a game to finish!"

"Might as well just do our own things." Hayner shrugs, "Feels like that kind of day."

"I think I'm gonna get something to eat." Olette decides aloud, "You want to come along, Roxas?" Roxas shakes his head slightly.

"Actually, I was gonna go unpack my stuff a bit."

"You still haven't done that?" Hayner butts in.

"Okay, go ahead." Olette nods, looking slightly disappointed, but then giving a reassuring smile. Roxas feels kind of bad, but he turns on his heal and waves goodbye to his friends as he heads straight for the dorm. It's not that he doesn't want to eat something with Olette, but he's had very few moments during which he could actually be alone since he got to the school, and he's been meaning to unpack his bags for a while. Having friends is an interesting change, but it apparently takes up quite a bit of your time.

Roxas steps into his dorm room, feeling as though he were about to proceed with some spectacular plan. It has only just hit him that he's been given full permission by his roommate to take down some of the colorful decorations, and do what he pleases with an entire half of the room. Right now, there is nothing he wants to do more than just see half of the room with bare walls. He decides to claim the side of the room with the closet, since Sora doesn't use it anyway, and he begins to take things down one by one. After an hour or so, Roxas has managed to remove all of the posters and stickers from his side of the wall, and move all of the clothes and random junk that occupied the floor unto Sora's side. The pile that had already hidden Sora's stepping stool has been doubled by Roxas' moving things over. Taking a step back to survey the room, Roxas releases an involuntary laugh. Half of the room is more cluttered than ever, and the other half, divided almost perfectly along the center, is completely barren of anything other than Roxas' unpacked bags sitting in the corner.

Starting up on his second project, it takes Roxas even longer to unpack all his stuff and find appropriate places for it all. His room lacks amenities such as a bookshelf, and the only table in the room is Sora's nightstand, which is quite occupied by Sora's things. A nightstand wouldn't really help him too much since he's got the top bunk anyway. _I'll have to get some furniture later_, he considers to himself as he places one final book onto a stack he made next to the closet. The closet is now full of Roxas' clothing, which reminds him that he should change. A checkered beanbag chair now rests in the corner, accompanying a black and white skateboard that's leaning on a nearby wall. He puts his bags, which still contain a few items that he decides to deal with later, into the other corner and pauses to take a look around at his masterpiece. He saunters over to his beanbag and lets himself sink into it, releasing a comfortable yawn. The color of the light shining in from the window indicates that the sun is only just beginning to set, but it doesn't make any difference to Roxas' eyes that fall heavy and blink themselves shut into a comfortable nap.

Roxas wakes a little while later. It's dark outside now, but Sora is not yet in the room, so it can't be that late. The blond boy stands up and stretches his arms, feeling very refreshed to wake up to this new room. As he goes to step out into the main room, Roxas notices Axel heading towards the stairs to the upper level. At an impulse, Roxas runs toward him from behind.

"Axe—" He freezes, shocked to see that the redhead actually turns around to look at him. Axel's green eyes stare at the boy for a moment before he speaks.

"Axel." He corrects, "A-X-E-L… Got it memorized?" He points a fingertip to his temple.

"Y-yeah." Roxas snaps out of his daze, "I actually memorized it the first day."

"Oh?" Axel says after a short silence.

"You picked up my books." Roxas continues, feeling increasingly awkward, "I just wanted to thank you." A shiver goes up his spine as he realizes that he actually just said thank you without thinking about it. Axel just stares for a moment. His eyes trail of to the side and glance downward as he turns around.

"And here I felt like you were looking straight through me." He says, back facing Roxas, "With that memory, there's no doubt you remembered to do the reading for tomorrow's class." Roxas turns pale as Axel disappears up the stairs. He had completely forgotten about the English homework. So, as the night goes on, Roxas attempts to read line after line of the Loveless poetry while distracted by thoughts of his conversation with Axel. _I actually talked to him._


	7. Thoughts In A Daze

**Chapter Seven: Thoughts In A Daze**

It takes just a brief fall and a hard clunk on the floor to knock Roxas out of his slumber. _Will there be a morning in which I wake up like a normal person? _He considers to himself, letting out a displeased moan, _Just waking up without being blinded by a camera or hitting my head? And who rolls off of a bed with a railing?_ At that note, Roxas remembers that he never actually went to bed last night. Reaching up for the couch that he had fallen asleep on, the half-sleeping boy is rudely hit on the head with an unidentified flying object. That object, as it turns out, is the very book that put him to sleep in such an odd place: Loveless. Roxas looks up and follows the direction that the book came from back to Seifer and his two goons, looming above him and grinning cockily.

"Sleeping outside your room AND shirking off on your homework duties, huh?" Seifer lists as Raijin jots some notes down on a piece of paper, "That's going on my list, kiddo." Rubbing his head as he stands to his feet, Roxas determines whether or not he should make the effort to squeeze a few words past his groggy yawns. How is Seifer to know whether or not he finished his reading last night? The guy just wants to pick a fight.

"Screw you, Seifer..." The words come particularly easy despite his state. They feel good too. Seifer's grin turns to a snarling scowl and he flails one arm out to Raijin who scribbles a few more notes.

"You're digging your own grave, newbie," Seifer sneers, "and I'm all too eager to throw you in. You'll be out of this school before you can say 'expulsion'." At that, the three antagonists storm out, leaving Roxas to his thoughts. Being so used to fighting in the past, Roxas isn't troubled for long over his rude awakening nor Seifer's threats. Instead, his mind and gaze turn to Loveless, which is now plopped down on the couch next to him. He DID read it last night. Most of it, if not all... but the words just wouldn't stick. There was something about a goddess and probably water, but he doesn't figure that will get him too far on a test. The only part of the book he can remember is the part that Axel read in class. Maybe he should get Axel to read the whole thing to him? The thought forced a laugh past his yawns. Now he's thinking about Axel again. That guy can be a distraction, and why is it so welcome? It's not like he's really... INTERESTED in him.

Roxas chokes on his own thoughts. Nearly everything that just crossed his mind after that thought crossed the line. Blocking further thought process proves difficult as Roxas makes his way to the public bathroom. He distracts himself by considering the ways to turn off one's brain. A few splashes of cold water from the sink seem to wash the thoughts out of his mind, and the blonde takes a minute to examine his soggy face in the mirror. Cold water really is the cure, huh? It helps from choking on food (and thoughts), helps when he's thirsty... heck, he's not even tired anymore. Focusing a little more, Roxas is startled to see a large figure in the mirror behind him. He spins around to face a tall, buff man with messy brown hair. He recognizes this man as the same one who snapped at him over a seat in the caf. With a shove from a single hand, the man forces Roxas out of the way of the sink and begins to wash his hands. It's clear that the man's looking for trouble, as there are several other available sinks in the room, but even Roxas' fighting instinct tells him that it would be a bad idea to take on someone twice his size... at least this early in the morning.

Having apparently not washed his mind completely, Roxas continues to think of Axel on his way back down the hall towards the main room of the boys' dorm. Maybe he'll catch a glimpse of Axel walking out. That's just stupid. Why does he care so much? He shakes his head around as if to physically throw the thoughts out of his head. What time is it? That's a different topic. He wonders if his friends are out of bed yet. By the time Roxas makes it to the usual table where his friends sit, Hayner, Roxas, and Sora have already gotten out of bed and are exchanging yawns. They silently great Roxas with waves and nods as he joins them at the table. The silence continues for a bit, even after Olette sneaks into the dorm and joins them. Olette _is_ the one to break the silence, however, when she finally says:

"So... what's the plan, today?" The four others exchange glances and then Hayner shrugs in response.

"Well... I figure we'll go out into town again or something." The brown-eyed boy suggests, "We could have Roxas train with that arcade game a bit more." Roxas sighs at hearing this comment. He's still not quite used to having his day planned out for him by other people. At least not in a way that he feels he should follow.

"First day of repeats!" Pence says in a mock excitement, "Everyone do their homework?"

"I did." Olette notes.

"Yep..." Hayner says uninterestedly.

"I didn't have any!" Sora grins. Roxas ignores the question and the fact that Sora said he didn't have any. It would be difficult for Sora to have avoided homework seeing as how he shares the same English class. Sora probably wouldn't get Loveless, anyway.

That isn't a point to which he can say much, however, as he _did_ fall asleep while attempting to read it himself. How is the teacher going to quiz the class on poetry, anyway? Isn't the point of poetry to interpret it how you want to? Heck, he can't even do that with what little he remembers.

"I'm heading for class." Roxas says, standing up from his chair.

"Still the early bird, huh?" Hayner shrugs with a laugh, "Don't you want to hang for a bit?"

"I'll catch up to you guys later." The boy responds and walks out the door to the dorm.

On his way towards class, Roxas flips through the pages of Act I in the book. If he can memorize any little thing before class, it's better than nothing. He leans against the wall by the locked door to his classroom. Skimming the pages really isn't doing much good, and it goes from bad to worse as the black haired girl, Yuffie, joins him in waiting.

"Read the chap?" She asks, clearly making small talk.

"Yeah…" Roxas nods, continuing to flip through the book.

"Tch, Liar." She laughs and pokes the boy's shoulder, "You're trying to read it fast before class right now, right?"

"I read it last ni—"

"You know… I could give you the details on the chapter for a small, insignificant little price." A grin forms on the girl's face and she eyes him eagerly. Clearly she's a morning person.

"I said I read it…" Roxas repeats in annoyance. The girl gives a small shrug and a sigh and then shuts her eyes with a tight grin.

"Whatever you say. There's still fifteen minutes before class in case you change your mind." As Roxas assumes from that statement, the next fifteen minutes consist of smirks and quick glances from the girl, and the occasional reminder of how much time he has left.

"Wow. You're a tightwad, aren't you?" She pokes Roxas again as it becomes time for class.

"I told you I read the—" Roxas is interrupted as Professor Trepe comes between the two students to open the door to class. Roxas and Yuffie, along with a number of other students arriving at class, take seats and wait for the teacher to begin.

"Good morning class." The teacher turns to face them. Axel arrives at about the same time she says this and finds his seat at the back of the class. Roxas' mind trails off for a moment while the teacher speaks until he finally hears the inevitable words: "Now I will quiz you on the material from Act I." The teacher hands out the quiz and Roxas takes a look at it. Apparently the point of poems _isn't_ to interpret them how you like, as the quiz is entirely about determining what certain lines mean in their contexts. How is he supposed to determine what _Ripples form on the water's surface_ means in a poetic sense? Isn't it just the obvious? Probably not, but that's the best he's got.

Already the blur of school has begun, Roxas thinks as he darkens the circles of his multiple choice test. This feeling starts here and continues like a dream for a while, pausing for a moment of disappointment while Axel disappears after class, and blending the next hour and a half of Roxas' Science class and lunch together. It's a daze in which the lessons and note taking become only vague memories, and the minutes tick by on the clock in random skips and jumps that never seem to make it to the end of the hour. This is a feeling Roxas has become uncomfortably familiar with in the past. It's the feeling of the monotonous system programming you for several hours each day mixed with the knowledge that you have nothing to go home to afterward. This feeling has been being forced upon Roxas by the 'powers that be' for all his life. He's never really understood why they don't just leave him alone. He doesn't have a family, he doesn't have a reason. They should just let him exist in peace. It makes him sick... or at least this used to be how it was.

Now, the school system is the same, but the feelings that go hand in hand are being breached by some new ones. Here at Sunset Hill, Roxas sees more of himself in the other students then he ever has in the past, whether he likes them or not. None of them have somewhere to go home to after school. Many of them are delinquents either by nature or for survival. Sure, they may still have families somewhere in the world, but they're just as stuck at this school as he is. Also, the drowning affect of the daze is being challenged by the existence of a few particular individuals which he can actually call friends... and also by Axel. Even still, Roxas can never manage to shake the feeling entirely. This kind of school just isn't for him. There's something missing.

It is only by the time of Art class that the feeling begins to subside. The last class of the day means that it's almost over, and Art has proven to be not so bad as far as he's concerned. Megara asks the class to draw a few stationary objects to show how well they grasp perception in their pictures, or something like that. Having been struck by the daze and distracted by other thoughts, Roxas has little attention for the task that's been given. Like most people, he figured out how to draw a pretty much three-dimensional cube shape when he was younger, and resorts to drawing some boxes. A little constructive advice is given by the teacher after class upon showing the picture, and Roxas is finally allowed to move on. He is done with another day of classes.

Roxas' daze is only truly broken, however, when he is startled into alertness by the sound of a voice calling his name as he walks down the path to the boys' dorm.

"Roxas!" The voice repeats. It's a girl's voice, high and shy, getting closer to him. He turns on his heel to see the blonde girl from his art class running up to him. She stops short, clutching her drawing pad close to her chest, and Roxas feels that her expression must look a lot like his own did when Axel actually turned to him the previous night. They stare for a minute and Roxas lamely says nothing. The girl's eyes drift off for a moment, gathering her thoughts, and then she suddenly snaps back to meet Roxas' gaze, as if fighting the urge to run off.

"I... I saw your drawing after class." She begins rather awkwardly, "Well... not this class, but last class. I'm sorry..."

"Sorry?" Roxas can't help but repeat the word. Is she apologizing for his extreme lack of drawing ability?

"No... I'm... sorry. I'm so stupid... My name's Naminé." This is just a very confusing jumble of words to Roxas, so he simply decides to ignore most of it.

"Oh, so _you're_ Naminé?" he remembers Hayner's mention of her.

"Yes." She confirms, nervously placing her fingertips together in front of her drawing pad, "I saw your drawing last class. It was good. Oh, and thank you for saying mine was good!"

"Mine...? Good?" Roxas laughs a bit, "Are you sure you're thinking of me?"

"Yes." She nods, interlacing her fingers, "The star. It was good. It was simple but... good."

"That's kinda what the teacher said..." he says, beginning to wonder why this girl came to him, "but I'm not really sure what it means..."

"It means..." She considers for a moment, "It had a message to it. It was a simple drawing, but it had meaning."

"Meaning...?"

"Yes. You were the star, weren't you?" She stares at him. Honestly, Roxas doesn't know what he was thinking when he drew the star. Part of him feels like he was just doing it to get by the class, but he does have a vague recollection of it meaning something at the time.

"What do you mean?" He says, actually curious.

"I think you were the star. You drew it all alone in the middle of the page, because you feel alone in the middle of this school." She seems to have a hard time not trailing off while she talks. It's an effect of self-doubt that Roxas has seen a few times in the orphanages in the past. He focuses on the way she talks instead of what she's saying, because whether he had been thinking this at the time or not, her explanation hit eerily close to home. This doesn't seem to work, however, as after just a moment of silence, Naminé seems to see that she's right.

"Uh..." Roxas starts and she holds up a hand to stop him from talking. She withdraws the hand and places it on her chest.

"I'd like to show you how to draw." She smiles softly, "So that you can express that even better." Immediately, Roxas' old nature kicks back in. This girl is nice and all, but friends never work so well for Roxas. He's pushing his luck with the four he's made recently.

"No thanks." Whether this is what he wants to say or not, this is what comes out, "I'm not really into sharing any deeper meanings. It's nice of you but... I'm not really the kind of guy you want to hang around." He begins to walk away before she even has the chance to respond. He doesn't dare to look back as he hears nothing but silence behind him.

_Nice new start, Roxas..._ He frowns to himself. And the daze comes back...


	8. Something New, Something Missing

**Chapter Eight: Something New, Something Missing**

After his talk with Naminé, Roxas pretty much missed the rest of his day. It all went by more or less like a blur. It seems that time will only fly when classes are not in session. He wakes up in the morning, well rested, having gone to sleep early the previous night. Upon sauntering out into the main room of the dorm, Roxas is confronted by his four friends, standing at attention in his way.

"Hey Buddy." Hayner grins.

"How're you feeling?" Pence inquires over Hayner's shoulder.

"Tired...?" Roxas responds with a yawn.

"You looked kind of down yesterday." Olette notes and Roxas shrugs past the four of them.

"I'm fine..." He says, taking a seat on his usual chair, "I've just been groggy, that's all..."

"Well we have a surprise that'll wake you up!" Hayner grins and gives Roxas a little smack in the chest. He would've smacked back if he weren't still waking up, "But you'll have to wait until after class for it."

It's on this note that Roxas begins his fourth school day. He can't decide whether it's worse to have English followed by Science in the morning, or Math followed by History. The latter definitely seems to take longer to go by. Once it gets to the final class of the day, Gym seems to go by just as fast as Art, but just takes more work. Learning volleyball is relatively easy though, when it comes down to it. At this point, Coach Highwind has to dumb down the game and actually _teach_ it to the people who don't know how to play, unlike last class, and since Roxas knows how to play already, it's easy enough to just sit back and let it flow. He does have to stay alert for the times where it feels most appropriate to throw a glare in Riku's direction for good measure. Sora isn't helping by getting impressed at every little thing that Riku does though, especially now that they're on opposing teams. What's his interest in this creep, anyway? Well, except maybe for the fact that he saved his nose the other day. Roxas supposes that this interest may actually be keeping Sora from focusing on the person who actually shot the ball his direction. For this much anyway, he can be grateful.

Same as the first day, Sora follows Roxas out of the gym as he walks back up towards school. He's grinning way too much for someone who was just on the losing team, and Roxas can already tell that he's about to start ranting.

"He must be the best in our class!" Sora exclaims, seemingly out of nowhere.

"Who...?" Roxas asks the question despite the obvious answer.

"Riku!" Sora hops in his step a bit when he says this. Roxas is sorry he asked, "I wonder if he's a jock?"

"Donno..." Roxas shrugs lamely. A loud crack is heard from the baseball field as they pass it by. Roxas catches a glimpse of a baseball flying high and far above the field. Tracing the balls path back to where it came from, Roxas sees a man, probably a student, but of a later year. The man stands tall with broad shoulders, and has long, light grey hair flowing from under a white baseball cap with black flames. In his right hand he holds the metallic red baseball bat that just sent that ball into tomorrow. Three familiar figures stand on the field with the man: the blonde girl with an attitude from the cafeteria, the big burly man with an attitude from the restroom, and finally, the man with the eye patch, the scar, and the attitude from that near-brawl Roxas had at lunch the other day. Judging by his company, Roxas assumes that he won't care for this man too much either.

"Xemnas would know." Sora says, turning to the field and watching as the scarred man laughs and prepares to throw another ball to be hit.

"Xemnas?" Roxas remembers Hayner's mention of the guy, "That guy's the head jock?" Another crack splits the air as the second ball flies out of sight. This time, most likely to show off, Xemnas hit the ball from his left side instead of his right.

"Yeah... He'd know, but I don't want to interrupt him." Sora says, and Roxas assesses that this may very well be the most intelligent thing he's ever heard the boy say, "I wonder how Riku would feel about a Nerd."

"I don't know why you care." Roxas says in annoyance and proceeds to walk down toward the main part of school once more, "Trust me. You don't want to know the guy."

"Yeah I do!" Sora protests, "You can't judge him before you know him!"

"Whatever..." Roxas decides to say instead of continuing the argument. If Riku really is a jock, Sora is digging himself a grave by pursuing him, but he obviously won't listen to reason. Instead, Roxas attempts to divert Sora's attention, "I wonder what that present is..."

"Oh! You're gonna like it!" Sora leaps and almost trips when he lands. Why is it that Sora actually knows what the present is too? Are his friends conspiring behind his back or something?

As he approaches the school, Roxas can see the rest of his friends waiting and scheming. Hayner steps up to Roxas as he gets close and puts a usual hand on his chest to stop him.

"Are you ready to take the second step to manhood?" The brown eyed boy flashes a grin.

"Does it matter what my answer is?" Roxas frowns, feeling like he's being dragged around.

"Course it does!" The boy reassures him, "Say yes to become a man, say no to spend the rest of your days at this School hiding in trash cans so that the bullies don't force you in them." Roxas hates this statement, but somehow it's easier to avoid hitting your friends.

"Come on," Olette gestures, "We're going out to town."

The usual trek to Twilight Town is getting a bit more familiar to Roxas, and once the group gets off the train, heads down Station Heights and throw the Common, it's rather easy to determine where their headed. His intuition proves to be right as the door is thrown open and the five friends step into...

"...The arcade?" Roxas scowls, not wanting to believe it, "My second 'step into manhood' is _also_ in the arcade?"

"Tch, you have no patience." Hayner shakes his head sadly, "It's not quite time yet, and no better way to pass the time than D.T.D!" Pence joins in on saying D.T.D. at the end. Roxas frowns but decides to play along. After all, leaving the school seems to have saved him from the daze that haunted him yesterday, so maybe it was actually good for him. He steps back into the virtual world of the Door To Darkness and readies his bopper to play the game.

It's only after a good while that Roxas is really starting to get into the game, having been doing better than he did last time, when the screen pauses in front of him and Olette removes his helmet.

"Okay," She says, "Shut your eyes and turn around." Roxas doesn't like this idea, but Olette sounds trustworthy enough, so he complies.

"Now get down on one knee!" Pence grins, or at least it sounds like he's grinning.

"What is this?" Roxas complains.

"Just do it!" Hayner says impatiently, "And don't open your eyes." Reluctantly, Roxas does what he's asked, and while on one knee, he feels something hard rest on his shoulder.

"You can open your eyes now!" Sora practically squeals. Roxas does just this to see Hayner holding out a long wooden sword against his shoulder.

"I now dub you, Prince Roxalot." Hayner laughs.

"Not bad." Pence gives a thumbs up and Roxas takes the sword. He looks it up and down. It's actually pretty well made. He can imagine hitting it pretty hard against things without it breaking. Standing up, Roxas looks back up at Hayner and notices Biggs behind him, who gives a little wave.

"Thanks..." Roxas considers the fact that this is his second time saying that this week and actually meaning it.

The rest of the time spent in the arcade consists of Roxas swinging his sword around a bit, in empty space of course, and his friends telling jokes amongst each other. Biggs and the owner of the arcade, Wedge, seem to be familiar with each other, and joke around as well. The whole thing feels kinda weird, Roxas thinks. He's not actually laughing himself, but all his friends are. These other kids have been going out of their way to hang out with him, taking him to the arcade, getting him ice cream, making him a sword. He doesn't really understand why they take the time to bother with him. He was nothing but rude at first. Has it gotten any better? Either way, he may be the only one in the room who is not smiling and laughing, but it still feels... good.

The five friends depart from the arcade as the hour grows late. On his way out, Hayner looks to Wedge and says:

"You didn't see any swords here today, did you?"

"See any what?" was the owner's response, "My eyesight seems to be off today."

"Good man."

The trip back to school actually felt nicer than the trip out. Roxas always enjoys seeing the sun resting above the water late in the day. One day, he's got to see the sunset, he thinks. Hayner replaces the bars of the grate as they sneak back into school.

"Hide the sword." Pence reminds Roxas, "Stick it in your pants or something." Roxas does just that as they make their way back to the main part of school.

"We made it before curfew." Hayner grins.

"Maybe I can actually walk back to my dorm today instead of sneaking." Olette laughs softly.

"Have a goodnight!" Pence waves to her.

"Goodnight guys!" She waves back. Watching Olette walk back to her dorm, Roxas spots Naminé sitting on a stone wall and drawing. His mind wanders off as his other friends walk towards the boys' dorm. Three people occupy his mind now. None of them are the friends he's been spending his day with, but instead they're Naminé, Riku, and Axel. He turned down Naminé's friendship when it obviously took a lot of courage for her to ask for his. He doesn't want Riku's friendship, but why doesn't he just brush him off like all the other unfavorable individuals at the school? And why can't Sora just stop talking about him. And Axel... well... he doesn't know. At least he doesn't _really_ know why Axel won't get off his mind. Something is still missing, he thinks. These thoughts don't make any sense. He's never cared one way or another for anyone in the past, so why is this happening now? It all seems kinda stupid to think about. It's just another school.

Roxas joins his friends in the dorm after a few minutes. Sora and Pence are once again involved in a card game, and Hayner makes a motion for Roxas to come and sit. So he does. After a little while of watching the card game that still doesn't make any sense to him, Roxas' train of thought is interrupted by Sora's voice.

"So what do you think?" He asks from his card game, and Roxas thinks that he must've missed something.

"About what?" He asks, to which the brown haired boy shrugs and looks back over his shoulder.

"The school. I asked you before, but you didn't really know it yet. Six Lady Luck." He says as he plays a card on the table, "You can't judge something before you know it."

"It's fine..." Roxas shrugs, "I guess it's not bad."

"Well that's an improvement on your first answer. Zero quick play." Pence notes aloud.

"I still don't understand why we need weapons though..." Roxas frowns, "Don't get me wrong, I like the sword, but I just don't get it. There hasn't really been any fighting."

"Like I said," Hayner begins with a spin of his hand, "The school hasn't really woken up yet. It's still the first week, so don't underestimate it."

"You'll be really lucky if you don't have to fight." Sora looks back, "But that's not likely."

"Give it a week." Pence says, doing something to the health points on the table, "You'll see."

And so Roxas would give it a week.


	9. Ripples In Clockwork

**A Heart For My Nobody -**

**Hey, everyone! I'm pretty sure that by this point, most of the fans of this story thought that it was abandoned. I don't blame you. It's been a long time since an update, but here it is! I'm very sorry that it's taken so long for me to come back to this. Hopefully it won't be so long from now on. ****I'll probably be going back to fix up some of my earlier chapters soon, getting rid of some of the typos and such.**** Thanks for sticking with me, and to anyone who's somewhat new to this story, I hope you enjoy it! **

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**Chapter Nine: Ripples In Clockwork**

It's almost like clockwork how the school functions. Not just the school, but the kids. One week exactly after Roxas had been told to wait a week for the bullies to get comfortable, on January twelfth, 2008, Sunset Hill clicks into full gear. That morning, it is no sooner that Roxas tries to leave his dorm and find class, that a foot finds its way in front of his, and he trips face first into the pavement. Finding 'oops' to be an insufficient apology from the eye-patched man responsible, Roxas' fighting instincts return. Unfortunately, he somehow misses the brown haired Goliath behind him, and is promptly introduced to the dumpster behind the dorm. So he returns inside in an anger, changes his cloths, and arrives at English class ten minutes late, invoking a long laugh from the skunk with the patch. Roxas grits his teeth through the class, knowing he probably flunked yet another quiz, having not been able to clearly define what 'a somber morrow' may have meant in its context. After the class and before his next one, Roxas is tripped yet again, this time it's a hit and run, and he can't pick out the one responsible. All the students around him just laugh as he stands back up and glares, jerking his backpack back up onto his shoulder.

Professor Hojo has his science class dealing with an acid as powerful as stomach acid, and he continues to rush the students during the procedure. Roxas ends up spilling it on his hands, _twice_, and getting scolded by the Professor as he quickly rinses them under cold water. Then, after class, these two guys approach him in the hall. One of the guys has his shoulder length hair dyed blue and spiked back with gel, and a small piercing in his nose. The other is much bigger and much stupider by the look of him. He wears a customized extra, _extra_ large sports jersey with the name 'Pete' spelled across it.

"So you hang out with the nerds, do you?" The blue-haired man judges him up and down, obviously already knowing the answer to the question. Roxas opts to ignore him and move on, but his path is blocked by the big guy.

"You guys must think you're so much more smarter than us, huh?" Pete snarls.

"Just shut up and do it..." The other man rolls his eyes, and Pete, in a single hoist, lifts Roxas off the ground and shoves him into an open locker on the wall, slamming it shut and cackling outside. Roxas, however, has never in his life been stuck in a locker, and doesn't plan on doing it now. He had used his foot to keep the locker from shutting entirely, and he throws it open, knocking Pete back a bit, and follows it up with a swift punch right in the fat man's jaw. He probably would've continued to fight the man, but he notices, much to his dismay, that Seifer and his lackeys are standing in observation; Seifer with his mouth open to exaggerate surprise.

"Oh hoh," he shakes his head at Roxas, "Fighting in the halls of the school?" Pete just nods at the accusation.

"Yeah!" Pete rubs his jaw, "He just up and socked me in the mouth!"

"That's complete bull!" Roxas shouts, exasperated, "You just saw me in the locker!"

"An ambush, huh?" Seifer considers, pretending not to be aware of what really happened. Raijin laughs behind him and jots something down on his paper.

"You know that's not what I..." Roxas grits his teeth and clenches his fists, "You set this up, didn't you?" He lunges forward and takes the collar of Seifer's shirt in his fist.

"Accusing _me_ now, huh?" he laughs in Roxas' face, not even flinching, "Keep 'em coming. Maybe you should hit _me_ too and make my day?" Roxas wants nothing more then to hit this disciplinary freak in the face, but even in his rage he knows that punching a prefect would be a terrible decision. So, after a few minutes of shamefully walking behind Seifer and his two goons, Roxas finds himself sitting in the Principal's office, staring at the back of Ansem's chair. Ansem hasn't yet turned around the entire time Roxas has been there. He's just been sitting in his seat, sighing at the wall. Finally, the chair swivels around and the Principal stares the boy in the eyes.

"I had heard of your unfortunate habits in your previous schools," Ansem sighs again and then shakes his head slowly, "But I had hoped we'd go at least the first month without having one of your fights." Roxas wants to argue that point. This wasn't one of 'his fights', but he'd tried to bring up such points like that with Principals in the past, and it never led anywhere positive, so he decides to stay quite and fume to himself. "Nothing to say?" Ansem questions him, standing up and walking to the window. Receiving nothing but silence in return, the Principal continues to talk while staring outside, "There have been children like you here before," he says slowly, "and I will tell you the same thing that I told them." He turns around to look back at Roxas, "This is your first offense, so I'll let you walk, but Sunset Hill Boarding School does _not_ tolerate violence. Your next offense will be treated with the utmost strictness. That is all." The blond takes his leave of the Principal's office, and saunters down the halls to his Art class, arriving just a little late. Art can't go too wrong, but halfway through the class the teacher, Meg, is hit in the back with a paper airplane. She unfolds the plane and reads something off of it in silence, then turns her eyes up to Roxas. At the end, Meg pulls him aside and waits for the other kids to leave the room.

"Did you write this?" She shows him the paper. On it, a letter is written signed by Roxas, declaring his undying love for the teacher. He makes a frustrated noise and shakes his head.

"No..." He says plainly.

"I didn't think so," She says calmly, watching him close, "Listen, are you alright?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." Roxas says quickly and sternly, not wanting to talk about it.

"Okay," Meg says, walking him to the door, "But if you change your mind, you can come talk to me." Roxas leaves, at least happy to hear that someone cares a little. Though he could never get himself to go and talk to a _teacher_ about his problems. He rarely cares to think about his problems himself. They only make him mad, usually _at_ himself. Tired from the days trails, Roxas walks back to the dorm, and just feet away from the door, a cigarette but flicks against his shoulder and falls to the ground. He jumps, startled, and wipes away the ash from his shirt. Looking up, he sees the eye-patched man standing next to the dorm. He was apparently smoking there, and he lets a puff escape his mouth before saying:

"Oops." It takes all of Roxas' remaining strength not to try and strangle the guy, and he pushes open the door of the boys' dorm, letting it fall shut behind him.

"Hey, Rox." Pence waves, sitting alone at the table and doing something with his cards. He scrunches his nose as the blond approaches and looks up, "Where you smoking?"

"No!" Roxas yells, "Uuugh..." He slumps down into the chair across from Pence.

"Okay man." Pence says, trying to calm him down, "Rough day?"

"I had so many bastards trying to start a fight today," Roxas throws his arm up in the air, "And I'm the only one who got reprimanded for anything! I've never gotten tossed in the dumpster before..."

"I told you it would get rough." he says, spreading some cards out on the table, "They're like a bunch of sharks, and you're the fresh meat this year."

"Well I can't stand it..." The blond slouches forward in his seat and cups his chin in his hand. He watches the cards shifted around on the table, attempting to understand.

"It's a willpower thing," Pence continues after a moment, "It's pretty bad at first, but that's just 'cause they have to rough up the new kids. Eventually, you'll only have to deal with your food being stolen once in a while, and the occasional wedgie."

"You only have to 'deal' if you're a defenseless nerd..." Roxas says, and as Pence glances up from his cards briefly, he realizes what he just said, "I'm sorry. I didn't mean that."

"Hey, no prob." The boy says, but he sounds a little insincere.

"I just think that _they_ should have to 'deal' with some of this crap too, you know?" He frowns, leaning back again. Pence says nothing. Roxas glances over at the staircase, hearing someone coming down, but it's nobody he recognizes. He wonders what Axel is doing right now. Next time he sees that guy, he swears he's gonna talk to him again. For better or for worse, he needs to ease the constant thoughts on his mind. Axel can't really be all that bad, can he? Roxas looks back at Pence after a silence, "Do we have any homework for history?"

"Nope," Pence says, looking up again, "We hadn't finished the lecture, so the chapter outline's put off for a class, remember?"

"Right." Roxas' memory comes back to him. He looks across the table of cards and then at the boy again, "Why are you in here alone, anyway?"

"I'm not. You're here." Pence says, and then looks up to see the displeasure in Roxas' face, "Because Hayner and Olette went off to play games at the arcade and me and Sora were supposed to play cards, but then he decided to ditch because some guy told him he'd help with his gym class." He sighs and then looks up at Roxas, "Who needs after school help with gym class, anyway?" Roxas shrugs.

"I dunno," he says after a moment, but he's well aware that Sora's probably hanging out with Riku.

"See," Pence starts again, "This is why you should've let me teach you how to play this game." He gestures his arm across the table of cards, "It's never too late to learn?" Roxas stands and shakes his head.

"Not now, sorry." He's starting to feel bad for turning Pence down so often, "I'm gonna go out for a bit while it's still bright outside." The other boy shrugs, and Roxas pushes back open the door to the dorm. He's glad to see that Patchy is no longer out there. He doesn't know what drives him to do so, but he makes a turn to walk behind the school, toward the area by the gym. Sure enough, as he approaches he notices Riku and Sora batting a ball back and forth on the cement. The gym class is starting to reach the end of the volleyball classes, and Sora wants to be better for their last few games. "How can you practice volleyball without a net?" Roxas says loud enough to catch Sora's attention. Sora turns around in shock.

"Roxas!" He says, hopping up and waving as though Roxas hadn't noticed him yet. As he runs over to greet the blond, Riku catches the ball and stands at the other end of the court to watch. Roxas prefers it this way, as he doesn't have too much to say to that guy. Sora stops just short of Roxas, and waves again "Hey," he says, a little out of breath, "Riku's teaching me volleyball."

"Coach Highwind's teaching you volleyball." Roxas points out.

"Riku teaches better." Sora frowns at the thought.

"So what's with ditching Pence, huh?" He asks, feeling a little intrusive.

"Pence said it was fine." Sora says defensively, "I've been trying to get Riku to hang for a while now."

"What, has he been too busy for you?" Roxas sneers a bit, glancing back at Riku, "You know, Pence has been your friend a lot longer and... what?" Roxas questions as Sora snickers, then he feels a cold, wet tap on the back of his neck. He spins around, ready for a confrontation, but instead he finds Olette smiling at him and holding out a pop of sea-salt ice cream. He takes it in confusion, "Oh..."

"I brought you back some from town," She says, handing another to Sora, "I didn't see you at lunch today."

"Long story..." he frowns at her, "So you guys left early?"

"Yeah," She scratches her shoulder as she talks, "Hayner wanted to avoid the bullies a bit. I guess they were giving him a hard time."

"Glad I'm not the only one, I guess." He says after some thought.

"No way." She shakes her head rapidly, "Some girls from the cheer-leading squad poured soda on my seat today in History class."

"You girls get bullied too?" Roxas realizes it's a stupid question, but the thought hadn't exactly crossed his mind. Olette just gives him a face like the answer is obvious.

"'course." She smiles, "Everyone around here gets bullied. Well, except for maybe the bullies and the jocks."

"How does he stay happy, then?" Roxas gestures to Sora, who has gone to the other side of the court to offer Riku a lick of the ice cream. Riku turns it down.

"You have to stay happy." Olette shrugs, "It's really the only thing you can do. Just grin and bear it. The ones who can't either turn to bullying or hiding." Roxas grows frustrated at this idea, but then his mind is wiped clean as he sees Axel actually _sitting_ on a bench a ways down the path near the gym. Axel isn't in motion, so he can actually talk to him for once. He turns his attention back to Olette.

"I'm gonna take off for a few." He says abruptly.

"Okay," she says, a little confused, "Where are you going?" Roxas is already turned away and walking before even hearing the question, and he leaves Olette behind to watch the practice game of volleyball. He swallows as he comes to the bench where Axel is resting, trying to decide what to say. Any and all planned speech disappears from his head, however, as soon as he tries to talk.

"Hey," He says. Axel continues to stare forward for a minute, as though he doesn't even notice Roxas' presence. Then, he turns his head up to look at the boy, but his head still isn't facing straight at him, and most of the look is coming from the corner of the red-head's eyes, "You're doing pretty well in English, right?" Roxas says, not able to think up anything more clever then bringing up their one shared class. Expecting no answer, the boy continues, "How do you know what the poem is really about? I can't even remember it once I get to class." He considers how making himself sound unintelligent may not have been the best course of action, but it's too late to take it back. After another second of silence, Axel turns his gaze away from Roxas and back in front of him.

"Well," The red-head speaks, and Roxas nearly jumps out of surprise, "I read it once before. In another school." His last sentence looks like it put a bad taste in his mouth, and Roxas can empathize with not wanting to think about old schools. That is the end of Roxas' thought process though, and he can only draw blanks on what to say next. After a moment, Axel looks back at him, "You like standing?" He asks, observing Roxas' close proximity to the bench.

"Uh..." He answers, lamely, and takes a seat on the bench next to Axel. Something unseen and cold sends a shiver down Roxas' spine. He knows that Axel is a Nobody in Hayner's classification, so he doubts that anyone often sits with him.

"It's not too hard." Axel startles Roxas again.

"Wh-what?" he asks, genuinely forgetting what they had been talking about.

"The book." Axel clarifies, "It's not too hard to read it once you get used to the idea behind it."

"Oh," Roxas understands, and then he forces himself to continue that thought, "It's just that I'm having a real hard time _getting_ the idea behind it."

"You have to read it like it's not really talking about what it says in a literal sense." Axel frowns, obviously not too interested in discussing the book, "The water for example. The ripples mean that somethings changing." He pauses and looks off into the sky in front of him, "Stirring things up." Roxas stays quiet, not wanting to say anything stupid. Apparently, though, the quiet doesn't help things either, and Axel stands up out of his seat, his chain necklace rattling. Axel's rather tall, Roxas realizes. The red-head takes a last look down at Roxas in his seat, "Nice talk." he says, straightening his coat and starting to walk away. On an impulse, Roxas hops up from the seat and takes a walk after Axel.

"Wait," he says, following the man, "Do you sit here often or...?" Axel turns around abruptly, and Roxas freezes in place.

"Do you know who I am?" He questions in a soft, but critical way. The blond stands straight, regaining composure.

"Yeah," he responds, "I think so." Axel gives him a long stare, and then his eyes drift off to the side. Finally, they return to the boy.

"Okay." Axel says still in a soft tone, and then turns his back to Roxas once more, "Well, maybe I'll see you around, kid." And then he walks off. Roxas stares after him as he leaves, feeling more accomplished then he expected he would. He sat with someone that the school ignores as a whole, and that someone had a conversation with him. Maybe there _is_ a chance that Axel is a nice guy, and maybe Roxas would be the one creating the ripples in this school. He turns his back away from the sun, and away from Axel, and walks, accomplished, back to his friends to finish his day.


End file.
